Vehicular occupant motion detection system using radar

ABSTRACT

System and method for determining occupancy of a vehicle in which a radar system emits radio waves into an interior of the vehicle in which objects might be situated and receives radio waves and a processor coupled to the radar system determines the presence of any repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehicle based on the received radio waves such that the presence of living occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant. Repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant may be a heart beat or breathing as reflected by movement of the chest. The processor may be programmed to analyze the frequency of the repetitive motions based on the received radio waves whereby a frequency in a predetermined range is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/838,920 filed Apr. 20, 2001 which in turn is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/563,556 U.S.Pat. No. 6,474,683 filed May 3, 2000.

This application is also related to (in view of common subject matter),but does not claim priority from, U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/084,641, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,978, U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,635, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/437,535, U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/047,703, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,139, U.S. patent application Ser.No. 08/640,068, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,782, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/239,978 filed May 9, 1994, now abandoned, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/040,978, now abandoned, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 07/878,571 filed May 5, 1992, and U.S. patent application Ser.No. 08/905,876, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,802, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/505,036, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to methods and arrangementsusing motion detection in vehicles for detecting moving objects in thevehicle and in particular to methods and arrangements for detectingheartbeats of occupants of vehicles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is a problem in vehicles that children and infants are sometimes leftalone, either intentionally or inadvertently, and the temperature in thevehicle rises. The child or infant is suffocated by the lack of oxygenin the vehicle. This same problem also arises for pets which are moreoften left alone in a hot vehicle without adequate ventilation.

Another problem which has unfortunately arisen relates to the theft ofvehicles. There have been incidents when a thief waits in a vehicleuntil the driver of the vehicle enters the vehicle and then forces thedriver to provide the keys to the vehicle and exit the vehicle.

As for additional background, in 1984, the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportationissued a requirement for frontal crash protection of automobileoccupants. This regulation mandated “passive occupant restraints” forall passenger cars by 1992. A more recent regulation required bothdriver and passenger side airbags on all passenger cars and light trucksby 1998. In addition, the demand for airbags is constantly acceleratingin both Europe and Japan and all vehicles produced in these areas andeventually worldwide will likely be equipped with airbags as standardequipment, if they do not include them already.

Whereas thousands of lives have been saved by airbags, significantimprovements can be made. As discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No.5,653,462 referenced above, and included herein by reference, for avariety of reasons, vehicle occupants can be or get too close to theairbag before it deploys and can be seriously injured or killed upondeployment of the airbag.

Also, a child in a rear facing child seat, which is placed on the rightfront passenger seat, is in danger of being seriously injured if thepassenger airbag deploys. This has now become an industry-wide concernand the U.S. automobile industry is continually searching for an easy,economical solution, which will prevent the deployment of the passengerside airbag if a rear facing child seat is present. An improvement onthe invention disclosed in the above-referenced patent, as will bedisclosed in greater detail below, includes more sophisticated means toidentify objects within the passenger compartment and will solve thisproblem.

Initially, these systems will solve the out-of-position occupant and therear facing child seat problems related to current airbag systems andprevent unneeded deployments when a seat is unoccupied. Airbags are nowunder development to protect rear seat occupants in vehicle crashes. Asystem is therefore needed to detect the presence of occupants,position, i.e., determine if they are out-of-position, and type, e.g.,to identify the presence of a rear facing child seat in the rear seat.Current and future automobiles may have eight or more airbags asprotection is sought for rear seat occupants and from side impacts. Inaddition to eliminating the disturbance of unnecessary airbagdeployments, the cost of replacing these airbags will be excessive ifthey all deploy in an accident. The improvements described belowminimize this cost by not deploying an airbag for a seat, which is notoccupied by a human being. An occupying item of a seat may be a livingoccupant such as a human being or dog, another living organism such as aplant, or an inanimate object such as a box or bag of groceries.

A device to monitor the vehicle interior and identify its contents isneeded to solve these and many other problems. For example, once aVehicle Interior Identification and Monitoring System (VIMS) foridentifying and monitoring the contents of a vehicle is in place, manyother products become possible including the following:

Inflators and control systems now exist which will adjust the amount ofgas flowing into and/or out of the airbag to account for the size andposition of the occupant and for the severity of the accident. Thevehicle identification and monitoring system of this invention willcontrol such systems based on the presence and position of vehicleoccupants or the presence, position and orientation of an occupied childseat.

Side impact airbag systems began appearing on 1995 vehicles. The dangerof deployment induced injuries will exist for side impact airbags asthey now do for frontal impact airbags. A child with his head againstthe airbag is such an example. The system of this invention willminimize such injuries.

Vehicles can be provided with a standard cellular phone as well as theGlobal Positioning System (GPS), an automobile navigation or locationsystem with an optional connection to a manned assistance facility,which is now available on at least one vehicle model. In the event of anaccident, the phone may automatically call 911 for emergency assistanceand report the exact position of the vehicle. If the vehicle also has asystem as described below for monitoring each seat location, the numberand perhaps the condition of the occupants could also be reported. Inthat way, the emergency service (EMS) would know what equipment and howmany ambulances to send to the accident site. Moreover, a communicationchannel can be opened between the vehicle and a monitoringfacility/emergency response facility or personnel to enable directionsto be provided to the occupant(s) of the vehicle to assist in anynecessary first aid prior to arrival of the emergency assistancepersonnel.

Vehicle entertainment system engineers have stated that the quality ofthe sound in the vehicle could be improved if the number, size andlocation of occupants and other objects were known. However, it is notbelieved that, prior to the instant invention, they have thought todetermine the number, size and/or location of the occupants and use suchdetermination in combination with the entertainment system. Indeed, thisinformation can be provided by the vehicle interior identification andmonitoring system of this invention to thereby improve a vehicle'sentertainment system.

Similarly to the entertainment system, the heating, ventilation and airconditioning system (HVAC) could be improved if the number, attributesand location of vehicle occupants were known. This can be used toprovide a climate control system tailored to each occupant, for example,or the system can be turned off for certain seat locations if there areno occupants present at those locations.

In some cases, the position of a particular part of the occupant is ofinterest such as: (a) his hand or arm and whether it is in the path of aclosing window so that the motion of the window needs to be stopped; (b)the position of the shoulder so that the seat belt anchorage point canbe adjusted for the best protection of the occupant; or, (c) theposition of the rear of the occupants head so that the headrest can beadjusted to minimize whiplash injuries in rear impacts.

The above applications illustrate the wide range of opportunities, whichbecome available if the identity and location of various objects andoccupants, and some of their parts, within the vehicle were known. Oncethe system is operational, it would be logical for the system to alsoincorporate the airbag electronic sensor and diagnostics system (SDM)since it needs to interface with SDM anyway and since they could sharecomputer capabilities which will result in a significant cost saving tothe auto manufacturer. For the same reasons, it would be logical forVIMS to include the side impact sensor and diagnostic system. As theVIMS improves to where such things as the exact location of theoccupants ears and eyes can be determined, even more significantimprovements to the entertainment system become possible through the useof noise canceling sound, and the rear view mirror can be automaticallyadjusted for the driver's eye location. Another example involves themonitoring of the driver's behavior over time which can be used to warna driver if he or she is falling asleep, or to stop the vehicle if thedriver loses the capacity to control it.

Using an advanced VIMS, as explained below, the position of the driver'seyes can be accurately determined and portions of the windshield can beselectively darkened to eliminate the glare from the sun or oncomingvehicle headlights. This system uses electro-chromic glass, a liquidcrystal device, or other appropriate technology, and detectors to detectthe direction of the offending light source. In addition to eliminatingthe glare, the sun visor can now also be eliminated.

The present invention adds more sophisticated pattern recognitioncapabilities such as fuzzy logic systems, neural network systems orother pattern recognition computer based algorithms to the occupantposition measurement system disclosed in the above referenced copendingpatent application and greatly extends the areas of application of thistechnology. An example of such a pattern recognition system using neuralnetworks using sonar is discussed in two papers by Gorman, R. P. andSejnowski, T. J. “Analysis of Hidden Units in a Layered Network Trainedto Classify Sonar Targets”, Neural Networks, Vol.1. pp. 75-89, 1988, and“Learned Classification of Sonar Targets Using a Massively ParallelNetwork”, IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing,Vol. 36, No. 7, July 1988.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below and unlessspecifically noted, it is the applicants'intention that the words andphrases in the specification and claims be given the ordinary andaccustomed meaning to those of ordinary skill in the applicable art(s).If the applicant intends any other meaning, he will specifically statehe is applying a special meaning to a word or phrase.

Likewise, applicants' use of the word “function” here is not intended toindicate that the applicants seek to invoke the special provisions of 35U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, to define their invention. To thecontrary, if applicants wish to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112,sixth paragraph, to define their invention, they will specifically setforth in the claims the phrases “means for” or “step for” and afunction, without also reciting in that phrase any structure, materialor act in support of the function. Moreover, even if applicants invokethe provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, to define theirinvention, it is the applicants' intention that their inventions not belimited to the specific structure, material or acts that are describedin the preferred embodiments herein. Rather, if applicants claim theirinventions by specifically invoking the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112,sixth paragraph, it is nonetheless their intention to cover and includeany and all structure, materials or acts that perform the claimedfunction, along with any and all known or later developed equivalentstructures, materials or acts for performing the claimed function.

“Pattern recognition” as used herein will generally mean any systemwhich processes a signal that is generated by an object, or is modifiedby interacting with an object, in order to determine which one of a setof classes that the object belongs to. Such a system might determineonly that the object is or is not a member of one specified class, or itmight attempt to assign the object to one of a larger set of specifiedclasses, or find that it is not a member of any of the classes in theset. The signals processed are generally electrical signals coming fromtransducers which are sensitive to either acoustic or electromagneticradiation and if electromagnetic, they can be either visible light,infrared, ultraviolet, radar or other part of the electromagneticspectrum.

“To identify” as used herein will generally mean to determine that theobject belongs to a particular set or class. The class may be onecontaining all rear facing child seats, one containing all humanoccupants, all human occupants not sitting in a rear facing child seat,or all humans in a certain height or weight range depending on thepurpose of the system. In the case where a particular person is to berecognized, the set or class will contain only a single element, theperson to be recognized.

Some examples follow:

In a passive infrared system a detector receives infrared radiation froman object in its field of view, in this case the vehicle occupant, anddetermines the temperature of the occupant based on the infraredradiation. The VIMS can then respond to the temperature of the occupant,which can either be a child in a rear facing child seat or a normallyseated occupant, to control some other system. This technology couldprovide input data to a pattern recognition system but it haslimitations related to temperature. The sensing of the child could posea problem if the child is covered with blankets. It also might not bepossible to differentiate between a rear facing child seat and a forwardfacing child seat. In all cases, the technology will fail to detect theoccupant if the ambient temperature reaches body temperature as it doesin hot climates. Nevertheless, for use in the control of the vehicleclimate, for example, a passive infrared system that permits an accuratemeasurement of each occupant's temperature is useful.

In a laser optical system an infrared laser beam is used to momentarilyilluminate an object, occupant or child seat in the manner as described,and illustrated in FIG. 8, of U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462 cross-referencedabove. In some cases, a charge-coupled device (a type of TV camera alsoreferred to as a CCD array) or a CMOS device is used to receive thereflected light. The laser can either be used in a scanning mode, or,through the use of a lens, a cone of light can be created which covers alarge portion of the object. Also triangulation can be used inconjunction with an offset scanning laser to determine the range of theilluminated spot from the light detector. In each case, a patternrecognition system, as defined above, is used to identify and classify,and can be used to locate, the illuminated object and its constituentparts. This system provides the most information about the object and ata rapid data rate. Its main drawback is cost which is considerably abovethat of ultrasonic or passive infrared systems. As the cost of laserscomes down in the future, this system will become more competitive.Depending on the implementation of the system, there may be some concernfor the safety of the occupant if the laser light can enter theoccupant's eyes. This is minimized if the laser operates in the infraredspectrum.

Radar systems have similar properties to the laser system discussedabove. The wavelength of a particular radar system can limit the abilityof the pattern recognition system to detect object features smaller thana certain size. Once again, however, there is some concern about thehealth effects of radar on children and other occupants. This concern isexpressed in various reports available from the United States Food andDrug Administration Division of Devices. Naturally, electromagneticwaves from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum could also beused such as, for example, those used with what are sometimes referredto as capacitive sensors, e.g., as described in U.S. patents by Kithilet al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,366,241, 5,602,734, 5,691,693, 5,802,479,5,844,486 and 6,014,602 and by Jinno et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,031which are included herein by reference.

The ultrasonic system is the least expensive and potentially providesless information than the optical or radar systems due to the delaysresulting from the speed of sound and due to the wave length which isconsiderably longer than the optical (including infrared) systems. Thewavelength limits the detail, which can be seen by the system. In spiteof these limitations, as shown below, ultrasonics can provide sufficienttimely information to permit the position and velocity of an occupant tobe accurately known and, when used with an appropriate patternrecognition system, it is capable of positively determining the presenceof a rear facing child seat. One pattern recognition system which hasbeen used to identify a rear facing child seat uses neural networks andis similar to that described in the above-referenced papers by Gorman etal.

A focusing system, such as used on some camera systems, could be used todetermine the initial position of an occupant but is too slow to monitorhis position during a crash. This is a result of the mechanical motionsrequired to operate the lens focusing system. By itself it cannotdetermine the presence of a rear facing child seat or of an occupant butwhen used with a charge-coupled device plus some infrared illuminationfor night vision, and an appropriate pattern recognition system, thisbecomes possible.

From the above discussion, it can be seen that the addition ofsophisticated pattern recognition means to any of the standardillumination and/or reception technologies for use in a motor vehiclepermits the development of a host of new products, systems orcapabilities heretofore not available and as described in more detailbelow.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, the claimed inventions are methods and arrangements fordetecting motion of objects in a vehicle and specifically motion of anoccupant indicative of a heartbeat. Detection of the heartbeat ofoccupants is useful to provide an indication that a seat is occupied andcan also prevent infant suffocation by automatically opening a vent orwindow when an infant's heartbeat is detected anywhere in the vehicle,e.g., either in the passenger compartment or the trunk, and thetemperature in the vehicle is rising. Further, detection of motion or aheartbeat in the passenger compartment of the vehicle can be used towarn a driver that someone is hiding in the vehicle.

The determination of the presence of human beings or other life forms inthe vehicle can also used in various methods and arrangements for, e.g.,controlling deployment of occupant restraint devices in the event of avehicle crash, controlling heating and air-conditioning systems tooptimize the comfort for any occupants, controlling an entertainmentsystem as desired by the occupants, controlling a glare preventiondevice for the occupants, preventing accidents by a driver who is unableto safely drive the vehicle and enabling an effective and optimalresponse in the event of a crash (either oral directions to becommunicated to the occupants or the dispatch of personnel to aid theoccupants). Thus, one objective of the invention is to obtaininformation about occupancy of a vehicle and convey this information toremotely situated assistance personnel to optimize their response to acrash involving the vehicle and/or enable proper assistance to berendered to the occupants after the crash.

Principle objects and advantages of the claimed invention are:

1. To determine the presence of a child in a child seat based on motionof the child.

2. To determine the presence of a life form anywhere in a vehicle basedon motion of the life form.

3. To provide a security system for a vehicle which determines thepresence of an unexpected life form in a vehicle and conveys thedetermination prior to entry of a driver into the vehicle.

4. To provide an occupant sensing system which detects the presence of alife form in a vehicle and under certain conditions, activates avehicular warning system or a vehicular system to prevent injury to thelife form.

5. To provide a system using radar which detects a heartbeat of lifeforms in a vehicle.

6. To provide a system using electromagnetics or ultrasonics to detectmotion of objects in a vehicle and enable the use of the detection ofthe motion for control of vehicular components and systems.

In order to achieve some of these objects, a system for determiningoccupancy of a vehicle in accordance with the invention comprises aradar system for emitting radio waves into an interior of the vehicle inwhich objects might be situated and receiving radio waves and aprocessor coupled to the radar system for determining the presence ofany repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehiclebased on the radio waves received by the radar system such that thepresence of living occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon thedetermination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant. Repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant maybe a heart beat or breathing as reflected by movement of the chest.Thus, for example, the processor may be programmed to analyze thefrequency of the repetitive motions based on the radio waves received bythe radar system whereby a frequency in a predetermined range isindicative of a heartbeat or breathing. The processor could also bedesigned to analyze motion only at particular locations in the vehiclein which a chest of any occupants would be located whereby motion at theparticular locations is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.

Enhancements of the invention include the provision of means fordetermining locations of the chest of any occupants whereby the radarsystem is adjusted based on the determined location of the chest of anyoccupants.

The radar system may be a micropower impulse radar system which monitorsmotion at a set distance from the radar system, i.e., utilize rangegating techniques. The radar system can be positioned to emit radiowaves into a passenger compartment or trunk of the vehicle and/or towarda seat of the vehicle such that the processor determines whether theseats are occupied by living beings.

Another enhancement would be to couple a reactive system to theprocessor for reacting to the determination by the processor of thepresence of any repetitive motions. Such a reactive system might be anair connection device for providing or enabling air flow between theinterior of the vehicle and the surrounding environment, if the presenceof living beings is detected in a closed interior space. The reactivesystem could also be a security system for providing a warning.

In one particularly useful embodiment, the radar system emits radiowaves into a trunk of the vehicle and the reactive system is a trunkrelease for opening the trunk.

The reactive system could also be airbag system which is controlledbased on the determined presence of repetitive motions in the vehicleand a window opening system for opening a window associated with thepassenger compartment.

A method for determining occupancy of the vehicle in accordance with theinvention comprises the steps of emitting radio waves into an interiorof the vehicle in which objects might be situated, receiving radio wavesafter interaction with any objects and determining the presence of anyrepetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehicle basedon the received radio waves such that the presence of living occupantsin the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determination of the presenceof repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant. Determining thepresence of any repetitive motions can entail analyzing the frequency ofthe repetitive motions based on the received radio waves whereby afrequency in a predetermined range is indicative of a heartbeat orbreathing and/or analyzing motion only at particular locations in thevehicle in which a chest of any occupants would be located wherebymotion at the particular locations is indicative of a heartbeat orbreathing. If the locations of the chest of any occupants aredetermined, the emission of radio waves can be adjusted based thereon. Aradio wave emitter and receiver can be arranged to emit radio waves intoa passenger compartment of the vehicle. Upon a determination of thepresence of any occupants in the vehicle, air flow between the interiorof the vehicle and the surrounding environment can be enabled orprovided. A warning can also be provided upon a determination of thepresence of any occupants in the vehicle.

If the radio wave emitter and receiver emit radio waves into a trunk ofthe vehicle, the trunk can be designed to automatically open upon adetermination of the presence of any occupants in the trunk to therebyprevent children or pets from suffocating if inadvertently left in thetrunk. In a similar manner, if the radio wave emitter and receiver emitsradio waves into a passenger compartment of the vehicle, a windowassociated with the passenger compartment can be automatically openedupon a determination of the presence of any occupants in the passengercompartment to thereby prevent people or pets from suffocating if thetemperature of the air in the passenger compartment rises to andangerous level.

Principle objects and advantages of other disclosed inventions that canbe used in conjunction with the claimed invention are:

1. To obtain information about an object in a vehicle using resonatorsor reflectors arranged in association with the object, such as theposition of the object and the orientation of the object.

2. To provide a system designed to determine the orientation of a childseat using resonators or reflectors arranged in connection with thechild seat.

3. To provide a system designed to determine whether a seatbelt is inuse using resonators and reflectors, for possible use in the control ofa safety device such as an airbag.

4. To provide a system designed to determine the position of anoccupying item of a vehicle using resonators or reflectors, for possibleuse in the control of a safety device such as an airbag.

5. To provide a system designed to determine the position of a seatusing resonators or reflectors, for possible use in the control of avehicular component or system which would be affected by different seatpositions.

6. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motorvehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of anothervehicle system such as the entertainment system, airbag system, heatingand air conditioning system, pedal adjustment system, mirror adjustmentsystem, wireless data link system or cellular phone, among others.

7. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motorvehicle and then to determine his/her position and to use this positioninformation to affect the operation of another vehicle system.

8. To affect the vehicle entertainment system, e.g., the speakers, basedon a determination of the number, size and/or location of variousoccupants or other objects within the vehicle passenger compartment.

9. To determine the location of the ears of one or more vehicleoccupants and to use that information to control the entertainmentsystem, e.g., the speakers, so as to improve the quality of the soundreaching the occupants' ears through such methods as noise cancelingsound.

10. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motorvehicle and then to determine his/her velocity relative to the passengercompartment and to use this velocity information to affect the operationof another vehicle system.

11. To determine the position of a seat in the vehicle using sensorsremote from the seat and to use that information in conjunction with amemory system and appropriate actuators to position the seat to apredetermined location.

12. To determine the position, velocity or size of an occupant in amotor vehicle and to utilize this information to control the rate of gasgeneration, or the amount of gas generated, by an airbag inflator systemor otherwise control the flow of gas into or out of an airbag.

13. To determine the fact that an occupant is not restrained by aseatbelt and therefore to modify the characteristics of the airbagsystem. This determination can be done either by monitoring the positionof the occupant or through the use of a resonating device placed on theshoulder belt portion of the seatbelt.

14. To determine the presence and/or position of rear seated occupantsin the vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of arear seat protection airbag for frontal impacts.

15. To determine the presence and/or position of occupants relative tothe side impact airbag systems and to use this information to affect theoperation of a side impact protection airbag system.

16. To determine the openness of a vehicle window and to use thatinformation to affect another vehicle system.

17. To determine the presence of an occupant's hand or other object inthe path of a closing window and to affect the window closing system.

18. To remotely determine the fact that a vehicle door is not tightlyclosed using an illumination transmitting and receiving system such asone employing electromagnetic or acoustic waves.

19. To determine the position of the shoulder of a vehicle occupant andto use that information to control the seatbelt anchorage point.

20. To determine the position of the rear of an occupant's head and touse that information to control the position of the headrest.

21. To recognize the presence of a rear facing child seat on aparticular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affectthe operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system.

22. To determine the total number of occupants of a vehicle and in theevent of an accident to transmit that information, as well as otherinformation such as the condition of the occupants, to a receiver remotefrom the vehicle.

23. To affect the vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioningsystem based on a determination of the number, size and location ofvarious occupants or other objects within the vehicle passengercompartment.

24. To determine the temperature of an occupant based on infraredradiation coming from that occupant and to use that information tocontrol the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

25. To provide a vehicle interior monitoring system for determining thelocation of occupants within the vehicle and to include within the samesystem various electronics for controlling an airbag system.

26. To determine the approximate location of the eyes of a driver and touse that information to control the position of the rear view mirrors ofthe vehicle.

27. To monitor the position of the head of the vehicle driver anddetermine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired andlikely to lose control of the vehicle and to use that information toaffect another vehicle system.

28. To monitor the position of the eyelids of the vehicle driver anddetermine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired andlikely to lose control of the vehicle, or is unconscious after anaccident, and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.

29. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and thedirection of a light source such as the headlights of an oncomingvehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manneras to reduce the intensity of the light striking the eyes of theoccupant.

30. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and thedirection of a light source such as the headlights of a rear approachingvehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manneras to reduce the intensity of the light reflected from the rear viewmirrors and striking the eyes of the occupant.

31. To recognize a particular driver based on such factors as physicalappearance or other attributes and to use this information to controlanother vehicle system such as a security system, seat adjustment, ormaximum permitted vehicle velocity, among others.

32. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presence andhealth state of any occupants in a vehicle. The presence of theoccupants may be determined using an animal life or heart beat sensor.

33. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupantsof the vehicle are breathing by analyzing the occupant's motion. It canalso be determined whether an occupant is breathing with difficulty.

34. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupantsof the vehicle are breathing by analyzing the chemical composition ofthe air/gas in the vehicle, e.g., in proximity of the occupant's mouth.

35. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupantsof the vehicle are conscious by analyzing movement of their eyes.

36. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupantsof the vehicle are wounded to the extent that they are bleeding byanalyzing air/gas in the vehicle, e.g., directly around each occupant.

37. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presence andhealth state of any occupants in the vehicle by analyzing soundsemanating from the passenger compartment. Such sounds can be directed toa remote, manned site for consideration in dispatching responsepersonnel.

38. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupantsof the vehicle are moving using radar systems, e.g., micropower impulseradar (MIR), which can also detect the heartbeats of any occupants.

39. To provide a vehicle monitoring system which provides acommunications channel between the vehicle (possibly through microphonesdistributed throughout the vehicle) and a manned assistance facility toenable communications with the occupants after a crash or whenever theoccupants are in need of assistance (e.g., if the occupants are lost,then data forming maps as a navigational aid would be transmitted to thevehicle).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawings are illustrative of embodiments of the systemdeveloped or adapted using the teachings of this invention and are notmeant to limit the scope of the invention as encompassed by the claims.

FIG. 1 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a rear facing child seat onthe front passenger seat and a preferred mounting location for anoccupant and rear facing child seat presence detector.

FIG. 1A is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a rear facing child seat onthe front passenger seat having a resonator or reflector placed onto theforward most portion of the child seat.

FIG. 2 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle cellular communication system.

FIG. 2A is a diagram of one exemplifying embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle heating and air conditioningsystem.

FIG. 4 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle airbag system.

FIG. 5 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle entertainment system.

FIG. 5A is a schematic representation of a vehicle in which theentertainment system utilizes hypersonic sound.

FIG. 6 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver and a preferredmounting location for an occupant identification system.

FIG. 7A is a functional block diagram of the ultrasonic imaging systemillustrated in FIG. 1 using a microprocessor.

FIG. 7B is a functional block diagram of the ultrasonic imaging systemillustrated in FIG. 1 using an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC).

FIG. 8 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a box on the frontpassenger seat and a preferred mounting location for an occupant andrear facing child seat presence detector.

FIG. 9 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver and a preferredmounting location for an occupant position sensor for use in sideimpacts and also of a rear of occupant's head locator for use with aheadrest adjustment system to reduce whiplash injuries in rear impactcrashes.

FIG. 10 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a front passenger and apreferred mounting location for an occupant head detector and apreferred mounting location of an adjustable microphone and speakers.

FIG. 11 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a subjectvehicle and an oncoming vehicle, showing the headlights of the oncomingvehicle and the passenger compartment of the subject vehicle, containingdetectors of the driver's eyes and detectors for the headlights of theoncoming vehicle and the selective filtering of the light of theapproaching vehicle's headlights through the use of electro-chromicglass in the windshield.

FIG. 11A is an enlarged view of the section 11A in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicle and afollowing vehicle showing the headlights of the following vehicle andthe passenger compartment of the leading vehicle containing a driver anda preferred mounting location for driver eyes and following vehicleheadlight detectors and the selective filtering of the light of thefollowing vehicle's headlights through the use of electro-chromic glassin the rear view mirror.

FIG. 12A is an enlarged view of the section designated 12A in FIG. 12.

FIG. 12B is an enlarged view of the section designated 12B in FIG. 12A.

FIG. 13 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver, a shoulder heightsensor and a seatbelt anchorage adjustment system.

FIG. 14 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a seat in thepassenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of ultrasonicresonators or reflectors to determine the position of the seat.

FIG. 15 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of the passengercompartment of a vehicle showing the use of ultrasonic resonators orreflectors to determine the position of the driver seatbelt.

FIG. 16 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of the passengercompartment of a vehicle showing the use of an ultrasonic resonator orreflector to determine the extent of opening of the driver window and ofa system for determining the presence of an object, such as the hand ofan occupant, in the window opening.

FIG. 16A is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of the passengercompartment of a vehicle showing the use of an ultrasonic resonator orreflectors to determine the extent of opening of the driver window andof another system for determining the presence of an object, such as thehand of an occupant, in the window opening.

FIG. 17 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of the passengercompartment of a vehicle showing the use of an ultrasonic resonator orreflectors to determine the extent of opening of the driver side door.

FIG. 18 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle security system.

FIG. 19 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and an instrument panel mounted inattentivenesswarning light or buzzer and reset button.

FIG. 20 shows an embodiment wherein the radar system emits radio wavesinto a trunk of the vehicle and the reactive system is a trunk releasefor opening the trunk.

FIGS. 21A and 21B show air connection devices for providing or enablingair flow between the interior of the vehicle and the surroundingenvironment, if the presence of living beings is detected in a closedinterior space.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the accompanying drawings wherein the same referencenumerals refer to the same or similar elements, FIG. 1 is a side view,with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicle showing the passengercompartment containing a rear facing child seat 110 on a front passengerseat 120 and a preferred mounting location for a first embodiment of avehicle interior monitoring system in accordance with the invention. Theinterior monitoring system is capable of detecting the presence of anoccupant and the rear facing child seat 110. In this embodiment, threetransducers 131, 132 and 133 are used, although any number ofwave-transmitting transducers or radiation-receiving receivers may beused. Such transducers or receivers may be of the type which emit orreceive a continuous signal, a time varying signal or a spacial varyingsignal such as in a scanning system. One particular type ofradiation-receiving receiver for use in the invention is a receivercapable of receiving electromagnetic waves. In an embodiment whereinultrasonic energy is used, transducer 132 transmits ultrasonic energytoward the front passenger seat, which is modified, in this case by theoccupying item of the passenger seat, i.e., the rear facing child seat110, and the modified waves are received by the transducers 131 and 133.Modification of the ultrasonic energy may constitute reflection of theultrasonic energy as the ultrasonic energy is reflected back by theoccupying item of the seat. The waves received by transducers 131 and133 vary with time depending on the shape of the object occupying thepassenger seat, in this case the rear facing child seat 110. Each objectwill reflect back waves having a different pattern. Also, the pattern ofwaves received by transducer 131 will differ slightly from the patternreceived by transducer 133 in view of its different mounting location.In some systems, this difference permits the determination of locationof the reflecting surface (i.e., the rear facing child seat 110) throughtriangulation. Through the use of two transducers 131,133, a sort ofstereographic image is received by the two transducers and recorded foranalysis by processor 101, which is coupled to the transducers131,132,133. This image will differ for each object that is placed onthe vehicle seat and it will also change for each position of aparticular object and for each position of the vehicle seat. Elements131,132,133, although described as transducers, are representative ofany type of component used in a wave-based analysis technique,including, e.g., a transmitter and a capacitor plate.

The “image” recorded from each ultrasonic transducer/receiver, forultrasonic systems, is actually a time series of digitized data of theamplitude of the received signal versus time. Since there are tworeceivers, two time series are obtained which are processed by theprocessor 101. The processor 101 may include electronic circuitry andassociated, embedded software. Processor 101 constitutes one form ofgenerating means in accordance with the invention which generatesinformation about the occupancy of the passenger compartment based onthe waves received by the transducers 131,132,133.

When different objects are placed on the front passenger seat, the twoimages from transducers 131,133 are different but there are alsosimilarities between all images of rear facing child seats, for example,regardless of where on the vehicle seat it is placed and regardless ofwhat company manufactured the child seat. Alternately, there will besimilarities between all images of people sitting on the seat regardlessof what they are wearing, their age or size. The problem is to find the“rules” which differentiate the images of one type of object from theimages of other types of objects, e.g., which differentiate the occupantimages from the rear facing child seat images. The similarities of theseimages for various child seats are frequently not obvious to a personlooking at plots of the time series and thus computer algorithms aredeveloped to sort out the various patterns. For a more detaileddiscussion of pattern recognition see U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,295 to Vargaet. al., which is included herein by reference.

The determination of these rules is central to the pattern recognitiontechniques used in this invention. In general, three approaches havebeen useful, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic and artificial neuralnetworks (although additional types of pattern recognition techniquesmay also be used, such as sensor fusion). In some implementations ofthis invention, such as the determination that there is an object in thepath of a closing window as described below, the rules are sufficientlyobvious that a trained researcher can look at the returned acousticsignals and devise a simple algorithm to make the requireddeterminations. In others, such as the determination of the presence ofa rear facing child seat or of an occupant, artificial neural networksare used to determine the rules. One such set of neural network softwarefor determining the pattern recognition rules is available from theNeuralWare Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pa.

The system used in a preferred implementation of this invention for thedetermination of the presence of a rear facing child seat, of anoccupant or of an empty seat is the artificial neural network. In thiscase, the network operates on the two returned signals as sensed bytransducers 131 and 133. Through a training session, the system istaught to differentiate between the three cases. This is done byconducting a large number of experiments where all possible child seatsare placed in all possible orientations on the front passenger seat.Similarly, a sufficiently large number of experiments are run with humanoccupants and with boxes, bags of groceries and other objects (bothinanimate and animate). Sometimes as many as 1,000,000 such experimentsare run before the neural network is sufficiently trained so that it candifferentiate among the three cases and output the correct decision witha very high probability. Of course, it must be realized that a neuralnetwork can also be trained to differentiate among additional cases,e.g., a forward facing child seat.

Once the network is determined, it is possible to examine the resultusing tools supplied by NeuralWare, for example, to determine the rulesthat were finally arrived at by the trial and error techniques. In thatcase, the rules can then be programmed into a microprocessor resultingin a fuzzy logic or other rule based system. Alternately, a neuralcomputer can be used to implement the net directly. In either case, theimplementation can be carried out by those skilled in the art of patternrecognition. If a microprocessor is used, a memory device is alsorequired to store the data from the analog to digital converters thatdigitize the data from the receiving transducers. On the other hand, ifa neural network computer is used, the analog signal can be fed directlyfrom the transducers to the neural network input nodes and anintermediate memory is not required. Memory of some type is needed tostore the computer programs in the case of the microprocessor system andif the neural computer is used for more than one task, a memory isneeded to store the network specific values associated with each task.

An alternate system is shown in FIG. 2, which is a side view showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle cellular communication system.In this view, an adult occupant 210 is shown sitting on the frontpassenger seat 220 and two transducers 231 and 232 are used to determinethe presence (or absence) of the occupant on that seat 220. One of thetransducers 232 in this case acts as both a transmitter and receiverwhile transducer 231 acts only as a receiver. Alternately, transducer231 could serve as both a transmitter and receiver or the transmittingfunction could be alternated between the two devices. Also, in manycases more that two transmitters and receivers are used and in stillother cases other types of sensors, such as weight, seatbelt, heartbeat,motion and seat position sensors, are also used in combination with theradiation sensors. As was also the case in FIG. 1, the transducers 231and 232 are attached to the vehicle buried in the A-pillar trim, wheretheir presence is disguised, and are connected to processor 101 that mayalso hidden in the trim as shown (this being a non-limiting position forthe processor 101). The A-pillar is the roof support pillar that isclosest to the front of the vehicle and which, in addition to supportingthe roof, also supports the front windshield and the front door.Naturally, other mounting locations can also be used.

The interface between the monitoring system and the cellular phonesystem is shown schematically by box 240 that outputs to an antenna250A. The transducers 231 and 232 in conjunction with the patternrecognition hardware and software, which is implemented in processor 101and is packaged on a printed circuit board or flex circuit along withthe transducers 231 and 232, determine the presence of an occupantwithin a few seconds after the vehicle is started. Similar systemslocated to monitor the remaining seats in the vehicle, also determinethe presence of occupants at the other seating locations and this resultis stored in the computer memory which is part of each monitoring systemprocessor 101. In the event of an accident, the electronic systemassociated with the cellular phone system interrogates the variousinterior monitoring system memories and arrives at a count of the numberof occupants in the vehicle, and in more sophisticated systems, evenmakes a determination as to whether each occupant was wearing a seatbeltand if he or she is moving after the accident. The phone system thenautomatically dials the EMS operator (such as 911) and the informationobtained from the interior monitoring systems is forwarded so that adetermination can be made as to the number of ambulances and otherequipment to send to the accident site. Vehicles having this capabilityare now in service but are not believed to use any of the innovativeinterior monitoring systems described herein. Such vehicles will alsohave a system, such as the global positioning system, which permits thevehicle to determine its exact location and to forward this informationto the EMS operator.

Thus, in basic embodiments of the invention, wave or energy-receivingtransducers are arranged in the vehicle at appropriate locations,trained if necessary depending on the particular embodiment, andfunction to determine whether a life form is present in the vehicle andif so, how many life forms are present. A determination can also be madeusing the transducers as to whether the life forms are humans, or morespecifically, adults, child in child seas, etc. As noted above andbelow, this is possible using pattern recognition techniques. Moreover,the processor or processors associated with the transducers can betrained to determine the location of the life forms, either periodicallyor continuously or possibly only immediately before, during and after acrash. The location of the life forms can be as general or as specificas necessary depending on the system requirements, i.e., a determinationcan be made that a human is situated on the driver's seat in a normalposition (general) or a determination can be made that a human issituated on the driver's seat and is leaning forward and/or to the sideat a specific angle as well as the position of his or her extremitiesand head and chest (specific). The degree of detail is limited byseveral factors, including, e.g., the number and position of transducersand training of the pattern recognition algorithm.

In addition to the use of transducers to determine the presence andlocation of occupants in a vehicle, other sensors could also be used.For example, a heartbeat sensor which determines the number and presenceof heartbeats can also be arranged in the vehicle. Conventionalheartbeat sensors can be adapted to differentiate between a heartbeat ofan adult, a heartbeat of a child and a heartbeat of an animal. As itsname implies, a heartbeat sensor detects a heartbeat, and the magnitudethereof, of a human occupant of the seat, if such a human occupant ispresent. The output of the heartbeat sensor is input to the processor ofthe interior monitoring system. One heartbeat sensor for use in theinvention may be of the types as disclosed in McEwan (U.S. Pat. Nos.5,573,012 and 5,766,208 which are included herein in their entirety byreference). The heartbeat sensor can be positioned at any convenientposition relative to the seats where occupancy is being monitored. Apreferred location is within the vehicle seatback.

Another type of sensor which is not believed to have been used in aninterior monitoring system heretofore is a micropower impulse radar(MIR) sensor which determines motion of an occupant and thus candetermine his or her heartbeat (as evidenced by motion of the chest).Such an MIR sensor could be arranged to detect motion in a particulararea in which the occupant's chest would most likely be situated orcould be coupled to an arrangement which determines the location of theoccupant's chest and then adjusts the operational field of the MIRsensor based on the determined location of the occupant's chest. Amotion sensor utilizing a micro-power impulse radar (MIR) system asdisclosed, for example, in McEwan (U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,070, which isincluded herein by reference), as well as many other patents by the sameinventor. Motion sensing is accomplished by monitoring a particularrange from the sensor as disclosed in that patent. MIR is one form ofradar which has applicability to occupant sensing and can be mounted atvarious locations in the vehicle. It has an advantage over ultrasonicsensors in that data can be acquired at a higher speed and thus themotion of an occupant can be more easily tracked. The ability to obtainreturns over the entire occupancy range is somewhat more difficult thanwith ultrasound resulting in a more expensive system overall. MIR hasadditional advantages in lack of sensitivity to temperature variationand has a comparable resolution to about 40 kHz ultrasound. Resolutioncomparable to higher frequency is feasible but has not beendemonstrated. Additionally, multiple MIR sensors can be used when highspeed tracking of the motion of an occupant during a crash is requiredsince they can be individually pulsed without interfering with eachthrough time division multiplexing.

An alternative way to determine motion of the occupant(s) would be tomonitor the weight distribution of the occupant whereby changes inweight distribution after an accident would be highly suggestive ofmovement of the occupant. A system for determining the weightdistribution of the occupants could be integrated or otherwise arrangedin the seats 120,220 of the vehicle and several patents and publicationsdescribe such systems.

More generally, any sensor which determines the presence and healthstate of an occupant could also be integrated into the vehicle interiormonitoring system in accordance with the invention. For example, asensitive motion sensor can determine whether an occupant is breathingand a chemical sensor can determine the amount of carbon dioxide, or theconcentration of carbon dioxide, in the air in the vehicle which can becorrelated to the health state of the occupant(s). The motion sensor andchemical sensor can be designed to have a fixed operational fieldsituated where the occupant's mouth is most likely to be located. In thealternative, the motion sensor and chemical sensor can be adjustable andadapted to adjust their operational field in conjunction with adetermination by an occupant position and location sensor which woulddetermine the location of specific parts of the occupant's body, e.g.,his or her chest or mouth. Furthermore, an occupant position andlocation sensor can be used to determine the location of the occupant'seyes and determine whether the occupant is conscious, i.e., whether hisor her eyes are open or closed or moving.

The use of chemical sensors could also conceivably be used to detectwhether there is blood present in the vehicle, e.g., after an accident.Additionally, microphones can detect whether there is noise in thevehicle caused by groaning, yelling, etc., and transmit any such noisethrough the cellular connection to a remote listening facility (such asoperated by OnStar™).

FIG. 2A shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the inventionincluding a system for determining the presence and health state of anyoccupants of the vehicle and a telecommunications link. This embodimentincludes means for determining the presence of any occupants 10 whichmay take the form of a heartbeat sensor or motion sensor as describedabove and means for determining the health state of any occupants 12.The latter means may be integrated into the means for determining thepresence of any occupants, i.e., one and the same component, or separatetherefrom. Further, means for determining the location, and optionallyvelocity, of the occupants or one or more parts thereof 14 are providedand may be any conventional occupant position sensor or preferably, oneof the occupant position sensors as described herein (e.g., thoseutilizing waves or electromagnetic radiation) or as described in thecurrent assignee's patents and patent applications referenced Aprocessor 16 is coupled to the presence determining means 10, the healthstate determining means 12 and the location determining means 14. Acommunications unit 18 is coupled to the processor 16. The processor 16and/or communications unit 18 can also be coupled to microphones 20distributed throughout the vehicle and include voice-processingcircuitry to enable the occupant(s) to effect vocal control of theprocessor 16, communications unit 18 or any coupled component or oralcommunications via the communications unit 18. The processor 16 is alsocoupled to another vehicular system, component or subsystem 22 and canissue control commands to effect adjustment of the operating conditionsof the system, component or subsystem. Such a system, component orsubsystem can be the heating or air-conditioning system, theentertainment system, an occupant restraint device such as an airbag, aglare prevention system, etc. Also, a positioning system 24 could becoupled to the processor 16 and provides an indication of the absoluteposition of the vehicle, preferably using satellite-based positioningtechnology (e.g., a GPS receiver).

In normal use (other than after a crash), the presence determining means10 determine whether any human occupants are present, i.e., adults orchildren, and the location determining means 14 determine the occupant'slocation. The processor 16 receives signals representative of thepresence of occupants and their location and determines whether thevehicular system, component or subsystem 22 can be modified to optimizeits operation for the specific arrangement of occupants. For example, ifthe processor 16 determines that only the front seats in the vehicle areoccupied, it could control the heating system to provide heat onlythrough vents situated to provide heat for the front-seated occupants.

Another possible vehicular system, component or subsystem is anavigational aid, i.e., a route display or map. In this case, theposition of the vehicle as determined by the positioning system 24 isconveyed through processor 16 to the communications unit 18 to a remotefacility and a map is transmitted from this facility to the vehicle tobe displayed on the route display. If directions are needed, a requestfor the same could be entered into an input unit 26 associated with theprocessor 16 and transmitted to the facility. Data for the display mapand/or vocal instructions could be transmitted from this facility to thevehicle.

Moreover, using this embodiment, it is possible to remotely monitor thehealth state of the occupants in the vehicle and most importantly, thedriver. The health state determining means 12 may be used to detectwhether the driver's breathing is erratic or indicative of a state inwhich the driver is dozing off. The health state determining means 12could also include a breath-analyzer to determine whether the driver'sbreath contains alcohol. In this case, the health state of the driver isrelayed through the processor 16 and the communications unit 18 to theremote facility and appropriate action can be taken. For example, itwould be possible to transmit a command to the vehicle to activate analarm or illuminate a warning light or if the vehicle is equipped withan automatic guidance system and ignition shut-off, to cause the vehicleto come to a stop on the shoulder of the roadway or elsewhere out of thetraffic stream. The alarm, warning light, automatic guidance system andignition shut-off are thus particular vehicular components or subsystemsrepresented by 22.

In use after a crash, the presence determining means 10, health statedetermining means 12 and location determining means 14 obtain readingsfrom the passenger compartment and direct such readings to the processor16. The processor 16 analyzes the information and directs or controlsthe transmission of the information about the occupant(s) to a remote,manned facility. Such information would include the number and type ofoccupants, i.e., adults, children, infants, whether any of the occupantshave stopped breathing or are breathing erratically, whether theoccupants are conscious (as evidenced by, e.g., eye motion), whetherblood is present (as detected by a chemical sensor) and whether theoccupants are making noise. Moreover, the communications link throughthe communications unit 18 can be activated immediately after the crashto enable personnel at the remote facility to initiate communicationswith the vehicle.

The control of the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC)system alone would probably not justify the implementation of aninterior monitoring system at least until the time comes when electronicheating and cooling systems replace the conventional systems now used.Nevertheless, if the monitoring system is present, it can be used tocontrol the HVAC for a small increment in cost. The advantage of such asystem is that since most vehicles contain only a single occupant, thereis no need to direct heat or air conditioning to unoccupied seats. Thispermits the most rapid heating or cooling for the driver when thevehicle is first started and he is alone without heating or coolingunoccupied seats. Since the HVAC system does consume energy, an energysaving also results by only heating and cooling the driver when he isalone.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of a vehicle passenger compartment showingschematically an interface 260 between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle heating and air conditioningsystem. In addition to the transducers 231 and 232, which at least inthis embodiment are preferably acoustic transducers, an infrared sensor234 is also shown mounted in the A-pillar and is constructed andoperated to monitor the temperature of the occupant. The output fromeach of the transducers is fed into processor 101 that is in turnconnected to interface 260. In this manner, the HVAC control is based onthe occupant's temperature rather than that of the ambient air in thevehicle, as well as the determined presence of the occupant viatransducers 231,232 as described above. This also permits each vehicleoccupant to be independently monitored and the HVAC system to beadjusted for each occupant either based on a set temperature for alloccupants or, alternately, each occupant could be permitted to set hisown preferred temperature through adjusting a control knob shownschematically as 250 in FIG. 3. Since the monitoring system is alreadyinstalled in the vehicle with its own associated electronics includingprocessor 101, the infrared sensor can be added with little additionalcost and can share the processing unit.

Not only can this system be used for directing hot and cold air, butdevelopments in the field of directing sound using hyper-sound (alsoreferred to as hypersonic sound) now make it possible to accuratelydirect sound to the vicinity of the ears of an occupant so that onlythat occupant can hear the sound. The system of this invention can thusbe used to find the proximate direction of the ears of the occupant forthis purpose. Additional discussion of this aspect is set forth belowwith respect to FIG. 5A.

Hypersonic sound is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,129(Norris), U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,870 (Norris) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,351(Raida et al.) and International Publication No. WO 00/18031 which areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety to the extent thedisclosure of these references is necessary. By practicing thetechniques described in these patents and the publication, in some casescoupled with a mechanical or acoustical steering mechanism, sound can bedirected to the location of the ears of a particular vehicle occupant insuch a manner that the other occupants can barely hear the sound, if atall. This is particularly the case when the vehicle is operating at highspeeds on the highway and a high level of “white” noise is present. Inthis manner, one occupant can be listening to the news while another islistening to an opera, for example. Naturally, white noise can also beadded to the vehicle and generated by the hypersonic sound system ifnecessary when the vehicle is stopped or traveling in heavy traffic.Thus, several occupants of a vehicle can listen to different programmingwithout the other occupants hearing that programming. This can beaccomplished using hypersonic sound without requiring earphones.

In principle, hypersonic sound utilizes the emission of inaudibleultrasonic frequencies that mix in air and result in the generation ofnew audio frequencies. A hypersonic sound system is a highly efficientconverter of electrical energy to acoustical energy. Sound is created inair at any desired point which provides flexibility and allowsmanipulation of the perceived location of the source of the sound.Speaker enclosures are thus rendered dispensable. The dispersion of themixing area of the ultrasonic frequencies and thus the area in which thenew audio frequencies are audible can be controlled to provide a verynarrow or wide area as desired.

The audio mixing area generated by each set of two ultrasonic frequencygenerators in accordance with the invention could thus be directly infront of the ultrasonic frequency generators in which case the audiofrequencies would travel from the mixing area in a narrow straight beamor cone to the occupant. Also, the mixing area could include only asingle ear of an occupant (another mixing area being formed byultrasonic frequencies generated by a set of two other ultrasonicfrequency generators at the location of the other ear of the occupantwith presumably but not definitely the same new audio frequencies) or belarge enough to encompass the head and both ears of the occupant. If sodesired, the mixing area could even be controlled to encompass thedetermined location of the ears of multiple occupants, e.g., occupantsseated one behind the other or one next to another.

The use of the vehicle interior monitoring system to control thedeployment of an airbag is discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No.5,653,462 referenced above. In that case, the control is based on theuse of a simple pattern recognition system to differentiate between theoccupant and his extremities in order to provide an accuratedetermination of the position of the occupant relative to the airbag. Ifthe occupant is sufficiently close to the airbag module that he is morelikely to be injured by the deployment itself than by the accident, thedeployment of the airbag is suppressed. This process is carried furtherby the interior monitoring system described herein in that the nature oridentity of the object occupying the vehicle seat is used to contributeto the airbag deployment decision. FIG. 4 shows a side view illustratingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle airbag system 270.

In this embodiment, an ultrasonic transducer 232 transmits a burst ofultrasonic waves that travel to the occupant where they are reflectedback to transducers or receptors/receivers 231 and 232. The time periodrequired for the waves to travel from the generator and return is usedto determine the distance from the occupant to the airbag as describedin the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462, i.e., and thus may alsobe used to determine the position or location of the occupant. In thecase of this invention, however, the portion of the return signal, whichrepresents the occupants'head or chest, has been determined based onpattern recognition techniques such as a neural network. The relativevelocity of the occupant toward the airbag can then be determined, fromsuccessive position measurements, which permits a sufficiently accurateprediction of the time when the occupant would become proximate to theairbag. By comparing the occupant relative velocity to the integral ofthe crash deceleration pulse, a determination as to whether the occupantis being restrained by a seatbelt can also be made which then can affectthe airbag deployment initiation decision. Alternately, the mereknowledge that the occupant has moved a distance which would not bepossible if he were wearing a seatbelt gives information that he is notwearing one.

A more detailed discussion of this process and of the advantages of thevarious technologies, such as acoustic or electromagnetic, can be foundin SAE paper 940527, “Vehicle Occupant Position Sensing” by Breed et al,which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety to the extentthe disclosure of this paper is necessary. In this paper, it isdemonstrated that the time delay required for acoustic waves to travelto the occupant and return does not prevent the use of acoustics forposition measurement of occupants during the crash event. For positionmeasurement and for many pattern recognition applications, ultrasonicsis the preferred technology due to the lack of adverse health effectsand the low cost of ultrasonic systems compared with either laser orradar. The main limiting feature of ultrasonics is the wavelength, whichplaces a limitation on the size of features that can be discerned.Optical systems, for example, are required when the identification ofparticular individuals is required.

It is well known among acoustics engineers that the quality of soundcoming from an entertainment system can be substantially affected by thecharacteristics and contents of the space in which it operates and thesurfaces surrounding that space. When an engineer is designing a systemfor an automobile he has a great deal of knowledge about that space andof the vehicle surfaces surrounding it. He has little knowledge of howmany occupants are likely to be in the vehicle on a particular day,however, and therefore the system is a compromise. If the system knewthe number and position of the vehicle occupants, and maybe even theirsize, then adjustments could be made in the system output and the soundquality improved. FIG. 5, therefore, illustrates schematically theinterface between the vehicle interior monitoring system of thisinvention, i.e., transducers 231,232 and processor 101 which operate asset forth above, and the vehicle entertainment system 280. Theparticular design of the entertainment system that uses the informationprovided by the monitoring system can be determined by those skilled inthe appropriate art. Perhaps in combination with this system, thequality of the sound system can be measured by the audio system itselfeither by using the speakers as receiving units also or through the useof special microphones. The quality of the sound can then be adjustedaccording to the vehicle occupancy and the reflectivity of the vehicleoccupants. If, for example, certain frequencies are being reflected morethat others, the audio amplifier can be adjusted to amplify thosefrequencies to a lesser amount that others.

Vehicle entertainment system 280 may include means for generating andtransmitting sound waves at the ears of the occupants, the position ofwhich are detected by transducers 231,232 and processor 101, as well asmeans for detecting the presence and direction of unwanted noise. Inthis manner, appropriate sound waves can be generated and transmitted tothe occupant to cancel the unwanted noise and thereby optimize thecomfort of the occupant, i.e., the reception of the desired sound fromthe entertainment system 280.

More particularly, the entertainment system 280 includes soundgenerating components such as speakers, the output of which can becontrolled to enable particular occupants to each listen to a specificmusical selection. As such, each occupant can listen to different music,or multiple occupants can listen to the same music while otheroccupant(s) listen to different music. Control of the speakers to directsound waves at a particular occupant, i.e., at the ears of theparticular occupant located in any of the ways discussed herein, can beenabled by any known manner in the art, for example, speakers having anadjustable position and/or orientation or speakers producing directablesound waves. In this manner, once the occupants are located, thespeakers are controlled to direct the sound waves at the occupant, oreven more specifically, at the head or ears of the occupants.

FIG. 5A shows a schematic of a vehicle with four sound generating units281,282,283,284 forming part of the entertainment system 280 of thevehicle which is coupled to the processor 101. Sound generating unit 281is located to provide sound to the driver. Sound generating unit 282 islocated to provide sound for the front-seated passenger. Soundgenerating unit 283 is located to provide sound for the passenger in therear seat behind the driver and sound generating unit 284 is located toprovide sound for the passenger in the rear seat behind the front-seatedpassenger. A single sound generating unit could be used to provide soundfor multiple locations or multiple sound generating units could be usedto provide sound for a single location.

Sound generating units 281,282,283,284 operate independently and areactivated independently so that, for example, when the rear seat isempty, sound generating units 283,284 are not operated. This constitutescontrol of the entertainment system based on, e.g., the presence, numberand position of the occupants. Further, each sound generating unit281-284 can generate different sounds so as to customize the audioreception for each occupant.

Each sound generating units 281,282,283,284 may be constructed toutilize hypersonic sound to enable specific, desired sounds to bedirected to each occupant independent of sound directed to anotheroccupant. The construction of sound generating units utilizinghypersonic sound is described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,885,129,5,889,870 and 6,016,351 mentioned above and incorporated by referenceherein. In general, in hypersonic sound, ultrasonic waves are generatedby a pair of ultrasonic frequency generators and mix after generation tocreate new audio frequencies. By appropriate positioning, orientationand/or control of the ultrasonic frequency generators, the new audiofrequencies will be created in an area encompassing the head of theoccupant intended to receive the new audio frequencies. Control of thesound generating units 281-284 is accomplished automatically upon adetermination by the monitoring system of at least the position of anyoccupants.

Furthermore, multiple sound generating units or speakers can be providedfor each sitting position and these sound generating units or speakersindependently activated so that only those sound generating units orspeakers which provide sound waves at the determined position of theears of the occupant will be activated. In this case, there could befour speakers associated with each seat and only two speakers would beactivated for, e.g., a small person whose ears are determined to bebelow the upper edge of the seat, whereas the other two would beactivated for a large person whose ears are determined to be above theupper edge of the seat. All four could be activated for a medium sizeperson. This type of control, i.e., control over which of a plurality ofspeakers are activated, would likely be most advantageous when theoutput direction of the speakers is fixed in position and provide soundwaves only for a predetermined region of the passenger compartment.

When the entertainment system comprises speakers which generate actualaudio frequencies, the speakers can be controlled to provide differentoutputs for the speakers based on the occupancy of the seats. Forexample, using the identification methods disclosed herein, the identityof the occupants can be determined in association with each seatingposition and, by enabling such occupants to store music preferences,e.g., a radio station, the speakers associated with each seatingposition can be controlled to provide music from the respective radiostation. The speakers could also be automatically directed ororientatable so that at least one speaker directs sound toward eachoccupant present in the vehicle. Speakers which cannot direct sound toan occupant would not be activated.

Thus, one of the more remarkable advantages of the improved audioreception system and method disclosed herein is that by monitoring theposition of the occupants, the entertainment system can be controlledwithout manual input to optimize audio reception by the occupants.

The maximum acoustic frequency that is practical to use for acousticimaging in the systems is about 40 to 160 kilohertz (kHz). Thewavelength of a 50 kHz acoustic wave is about 0.6 cm which is too coarseto determine the fine features of a person's face, for example. It iswell understood by those skilled in the art that features which aresmaller than the wavelength of the irradiating radiation cannot bedistinguished. Similarly the wave length of common radar systems variesfrom about 0.9 cm (for 33,000 MHz K band) to 133 cm (for 225 MHz P band)which is also too coarse for person identification systems. In FIG. 6,therefore, the ultrasonic transducers of the previous designs arereplaced by laser transducers 231 and 232 which are connected to amicroprocessor 101. In all other manners, the system operates the same.The design of the electronic circuits for this laser system is describedin some detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462 cross-referenced above and inparticular FIG. 8 thereof and the corresponding description. In thiscase, a pattern recognition system such as a neural network system isemployed and uses the demodulated signals from the receptors 231 and232.

The output of processor 101 of the monitoring system is shown connectedschematically to a general interface 290 which can be the vehicleignition enabling system; the entertainment system; the seat, mirror,suspension or other adjustment systems; or any other appropriate vehiclesystem.

There are two preferred methods of implementing the vehicle interiormonitoring system of this invention, a microprocessor system and anapplication specific integrated circuit system (ASIC). Both of thesesystems are represented schematically as either 101 or 601 herein. Insome systems, both a microprocessor and an ASIC are used. In othersystems, most if not all of the circuitry is combined onto a single chip(system on a chip). The particular implementation depends on thequantity to be made and economic considerations. A block diagramillustrating the microprocessor system is shown in FIG. 7A which showsthe implementation of the system of FIG. 1. An alternate implementationof the FIG. 1 system using an ASIC is shown in FIG. 7B. In both casesthe target, which may be a rear facing child seat, is shownschematically as 110 and the three transducers as 131, 132, and 133. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 7A, there is a digitizer coupled to the receivers131,133 and the processor, and an indicator coupled to the processor. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 7B, there is a memory unit associated with theASIC and also an indicator coupled to the ASIC.

In FIG. 8, a view of the system of FIG. 1 is illustrated with a box 295shown on the front passenger seat in place of a rear facing child seat.The vehicle interior monitoring system is trained to recognize that thisbox 295 is neither a rear facing child seat nor an occupant andtherefore it is treated as an empty seat and the deployment of theairbag is suppressed. This training is accomplished using a neuralnetwork with the commercially available software disclosed above andprovided, for example, by NeuralWare of Pittsburgh. The system assessesthe probability that the box is a person, however, and if there is eventhe remotest chance that it is a person, the airbag deployment is notsuppressed. The system is thus typically biased toward enabling airbagdeployment.

Side impact airbags are now used on some vehicles. Some are quite smallcompared to driver or passenger airbags used for frontal impactprotection. Nevertheless, a small child could be injured if he issleeping with his head against the airbag module when the airbag deploysand a vehicle interior monitoring system is needed to prevent such adeployment. In FIG. 9, a single ultrasonic transducer 330 is shownmounted in a door adjacent airbag system 332 which houses an airbag 336.Similar to the embodiment in FIG. 4 with reference to U.S. Pat. No.5,653,462, the airbag system 332 and components of the interiormonitoring system, e.g., transducer 330, are coupled to a processor 101Aincluding a control circuit 101B for controlling deployment of theairbag 336 based on information obtained by ultrasonic transducer 330.This device is not used to identify the object that is adjacent theairbag but merely to measure the position of the object. It can also beused to determine the presence of the object, i.e., the received wavesare indicative of the presence or absence of an occupant as well as theposition of the occupant or a part thereof. Instead of an ultrasonictransducer, another wave-receiving transducer may be used as describedin any of the other embodiments herein, either solely for performing awave-receiving function or for performing both a wave-receiving functionand a wave-transmitting function.

A rear-of-head detector 334 is also illustrated in FIG. 9. This detector334 is used to determine the distance from the headrest to the rearmostposition of the occupant's head and to therefore control the position ofthe headrest so that it is properly positioned behind the occupant'shead to offer optimum support during a rear impact. Although theheadrest of most vehicles is adjustable, it is rare for an occupant toposition it properly if at all. Each year there are in excess of 400,000whiplash injuries in vehicle impacts approximately 90,000 of which arefrom rear impacts (source: National Highway Traffic Safety Admin.). Aproperly positioned headrest could substantially reduce the frequency ofsuch injuries, which can be accomplished by the head detector of thisinvention. The head detector 334 is shown connected schematically to theheadrest control mechanism and circuitry 340. This mechanism is capableof moving the headrest up and down and, in some cases, rotating it foreand aft.

When the driver of a vehicle is using a cellular phone, the phonemicrophone frequently picks up other noise in the vehicle making itdifficult for the other party to hear what is being said. This noise canbe reduced if a directional microphone is used and directed toward themouth of the driver. This is difficult to do since the position ofdrivers' mouths varies significantly depending on such things as thesize and seating position of the driver. By using the vehicle interioridentification and monitoring system of this invention, and throughappropriate pattern recognition techniques, the location of the driver'shead can be determined with sufficient accuracy even with ultrasonics topermit a directional microphone having a 15 degree cone angle to beaimed at the mouth of the driver resulting in a clear reception of hisvoice. The use of directional speakers in a similar manner also improvesthe telephone system performance. In the extreme case of directionality,the techniques of hypersound can be used. Such a system can also be usedto permit effortless conversations between occupants of the front andrear seats. Such a system is shown in FIG. 10 which is a system similarto that of FIG. 2 only using three ultrasonic transducers 231, 232 and233 to determine the location of the driver's head and control thepointing direction of a microphone 355. Speaker 357 is shown connectedschematically to the phone system 359 completing the system.

The transducers 231 and 232 are placed high in the A-pillar and thethird transducer 233 is placed in the headliner and displacedhorizontally from transducers 231 and 232. The two transducers 231 and232 provide information to permit the determination of the locus of thehead in the vertical direction and the combination of one of transducers231 and 232 in conjunction with transducer 233 is used to determine thehorizontal location of the head. The three transducers are placed highin the vehicle passenger compartment so that the first returned signalis from the head. Temporal filtering is used to eliminate signals whichare reflections from beyond the head and the determination of the headcenter location is then found by the approximate centroid of the headreturned signal. That is, once the location of the return signalcentroid is found from each of the three received signals fromtransducers 231, 232 and 233, the distance to that point is known foreach of the transducers based on the time it takes the signal to travelfrom the head to each transducer. In this manner, by using the threetransducers plus an algorithm for finding the coordinates of the headcenter, using processor 101, and through the use of known relationshipsbetween the location of the mouth and the head center, an estimate ofthe mouth location, and the ear locations, can be easily determinedwithin a circle having a diameter of about five inches (13 cm). This issufficiently accurate for a directional microphone to cover the mouthwhile excluding the majority of unwanted noise.

The headlights of oncoming vehicles frequently make it difficult for thedriver of a vehicle to see the road and safely operate the vehicle. Thisis a significant cause of accidents and much discomfort. The problem isespecially severe during bad weather where rain can cause multiplereflections. Visors are now used to partially solve this problem butthey do so by completely blocking the view through a large portion ofthe window and therefore cannot be used to cover the entire windshield.Similar problems happen when the sun is setting or rising and the driveris operating the vehicle in the direction of the sun. The vehicleinterior monitoring system of this invention can contribute to thesolution of this problem by determining the position of the driver'seyes. If separate sensors are used to sense the direction of the lightfrom the on-coming vehicle or the sun, and through the use ofelectro-chromic glass, a liquid crystal device, or other appropriatetechnology, a portion of the windshield can be darkened to impose afilter between the eyes of the driver and the light source.Electro-chromic glass is a material where the color of the glass can bechanged through the application of an electric current. By dividing thewindshield into a controlled grid or matrix of contiguous areas andthrough feeding the current into the windshield from orthogonaldirections, selective portions of the windshield can be darkened asdesired. Other systems for selectively imposing a filter between theeyes of an occupant and the light source are currently underdevelopment.

FIG. 11 illustrates how such a system operates. A sensor 410 located onvehicle 402 determines the direction of the light 412 from theheadlights of oncoming vehicle 404. Sensor 410 is comprised of a lensand a charge-coupled device (CCD), of CMOS light sensing or similardevice, with appropriate electronic circuitry which determines whichelements of the CCD are being most brightly illuminated. An algorithmstored in processor 101 then calculates the direction of the light fromthe oncoming headlights based on the information from the CCD, or CMOSdevice. Transducers 231, 232 and 233 determine the probable location ofthe eyes of the operator 210 of vehicle 402 in a manner such asdescribed above in conjunction with the determination of the location ofthe driver's mouth in the discussion of FIG. 10. In this case, however,the determination of the probable locus of the driver's eyes is madewith an accuracy of a diameter for each eye of about 3 inches (7.5 cm).This calculation sometimes will be in error and provision is made forthe driver to make an adjustment to correct for this error as describedbelow.

The windshield 416 of vehicle 402 is made from electro-chromic glass orcomprises a liquid crystal device or similar system, and is selectivelydarkened at area 418 due to the application of a current alongperpendicular directions 422 and 424 of windshield 416. The particularportion of the windshield to be darkened is determined by processor 101.Once the direction of the light from the oncoming vehicle is known andthe locations of the driver's eyes are known, it is a matter of simpletrigonometry to determine which areas of the windshield matrix should bedarkened to impose a filter between the headlights and the driver'seyes. This is accomplished by processor 101. A separate control system,not shown, located on the instrument panel, or at some other convenientlocation, allows the driver to select the amount of darkeningaccomplished by the system from no darkening to maximum darkening. Inthis manner, the driver can select the amount of light that is filteredto suit his particular physiology. The sensor 410 can either be designedto respond to a single light source or to multiple light sources to besensed and thus multiple portions of the vehicle windshield to bedarkened.

As mentioned above, the calculations of the location of the driver'seyes using acoustic systems may be in error and therefore provision mustbe made to correct for this error. One such system permits the driver toadjust the center of the darkened portion of the windshield to correctfor such errors through a knob on the instrument panel, steering wheelor other convenient location. Another solution permits the driver tomake the adjustment by slightly moving his head. Once a calculation asto the location of the driver's eyes has been made, that calculation isnot changed even though the driver moves his head slightly. It isassumed that the driver will only move his head to center the darkenedportion of the windshield to optimally filter the light from theoncoming vehicle. The monitoring system will detect this initial headmotion and make the correction automatically for future calculations.

Electro-chromic glass is currently used in rear view mirrors to darkenthe entire mirror in response to the amount of light striking anassociated sensor. This substantially reduces the ability of the driverto see objects coming from behind his vehicle. If one rear-approachingvehicle, for example, has failed to dim his lights, the mirror will bedarkened to respond to the light from that vehicle making it difficultfor the driver to see other vehicles that are also approaching from therear. If the rear view mirror is selectively darkened on only thoseportions which cover the lights from the offending vehicle, the driveris able to see all of the light coming from the rear whether the sourceis bright or dim. This permits the driver to see all of the approachingvehicles not just the one with bright lights.

Such a system is illustrated in FIG. 12 where rear view mirror 460 isequipped with electro-chromic glass, or comprises a liquid crystaldevice, having the capability of being selectively darkened, e.g., atarea 419. Associated with mirror 460 is a light sensor 462 thatdetermines the direction of light 412 from the headlights of rearapproaching vehicle 405. In the same manner as above, transducers 231,232 and 233 determine the location of the eyes of the driver 210. Thesignals from both sensor systems, 231, 232 plus 233 and 462, arecombined in processor 101, where a determination is made as to whatportions of the mirror should be darkened, e.g., area 419. Appropriatecurrents are then sent to the mirror in a manner similar to thewindshield system described above.

Seatbelts are most effective when the upper attachment point to thevehicle is positioned vertically close to the shoulder of the occupantbeing restrained. If the attachment point is too low the occupantexperiences discomfort from the rubbing of the belt on his shoulder. Ifit is too high, the occupant may experience discomfort due to therubbing of the belt against his neck and the occupant will move forwardby a greater amount during a crash which may result in his head strikingthe steering wheel. Women in particular experience discomfort from animproperly adjusted seatbelt anchorage point. For these reasons, it isdesirable to have the upper seatbelt attachment point located slightlyabove the occupant's shoulder. To accomplish this for various sizedoccupants, the location of the occupant's shoulder must be known whichcan be accomplished by the vehicle interior monitoring system describedherein. Such a system is illustrated in FIG. 13 that is a side view of aseatbelt anchorage adjustment system. In this system, a transmitter andreceiver (transducer) 520 is positioned in a convenient location, suchas the headliner, located above and to the outside of the occupant'sshoulder. A narrow elliptical beam 521 of energy is transmitted fromtransducer 520 in a manner such that it irradiates or illuminates theoccupant's shoulder and headrest. An appropriate pattern recognitionsystem as described above is then used to determine the location andposition of the shoulder. This information is fed to the seatbeltanchorage height adjustment system 528, shown schematically, which movesthe attachment point 529 to the optimum vertical location.

Acoustic resonators are devices that resonate at a preset frequency whenexcited at that frequency. If such a device, which has been tuned to 40kHz, is subjected to ultrasonic radiation at 40 kHz, for example, itwill return a signal that is much stronger than the reflected radiation.If such a device is placed at a particular point in the passengercompartment of a vehicle, the returned signal can be easily identifiedas a high magnitude narrow signal at a particular point in time which isproportional to the distance from the resonator to the receiver. Sincethis device can be easily identified, it provides a particularlyeffective method of determining the distance to a particular point inthe vehicle passenger compartment (i.e., the distance between thelocation of the resonator and the detector). If several such resonatorsare used they can be tuned to slightly different frequencies andtherefore separated and identified by the circuitry. Using suchresonators, the positions of various objects in the vehicle can bedetermined. In FIG. 14 for example, three such resonators are placed onthe vehicle seat and used to determine the location of the front andback of the seat and the top of the seat back. In this case, transducers231 and 232, mounted in the A-pillar 662, are used in conjunction withresonators 641, 642 and 643 to determine the position of the seat.Transducers 231,232 constitute both transmitter means for transmittingenergy signals at the excitation frequencies of the resonators641,642,643 and detector means for detecting the return energy signalsfrom the excited resonators. Processor 101 is coupled to the transducers231,232 to analyze the energy signals received by the detectors andprovide information about the object with which the resonators areassociated, i.e., the position of the seat in this embodiment. Thisinformation is then fed to the seat memory and adjustment system, notshown, eliminating the currently used sensors that are placed typicallybeneath the seat adjacent the seat adjustment motors. In theconventional system, the seat sensors must be wired into the seatadjustment system and are prone to being damaged. By using the vehicleinterior monitoring system alone with inexpensive passive resonators,the conventional seat sensors can be eliminated resulting in a costsaving to the vehicle manufacturer. An efficient reflector, such as aparabolic shaped reflector, can be used in a similar manner as theresonator.

Resonators or reflectors, of the type described above can be used formaking a variety of position measurements in the vehicle. Theseresonators are made to resonate at a particular frequency. If the numberof resonators increases beyond a reasonable number, dual frequencyresonators can be used. A pair of frequencies is then used to identify aparticular location. Alternately, resonators tuned to a particularfrequency can be used in combination with special transmitters, whichtransmit at the tuned frequency, which are designed to work with aparticular resonator or group of resonators. The cost of the transducersis sufficiently low to permit special transducers to be used for specialpurposes. The use of resonators which resonate at different frequenciesrequires that they be irradiated by radiation containing thosefrequencies.

Another application for a resonator of the type described is todetermine the location of the seatbelt and therefore determine whetherit is in use. If it is known that the occupants are wearing seatbelts,the airbag deployment parameters can be controlled or adjusted based onthe knowledge of seatbelt use, e.g., the deployment threshold can beincreased since the airbag is not needed in low velocity accidents ifthe occupants are already restrained by seatbelts. Deployment of otheroccupant restraint devices could also be effected based on the knowledgeof seatbelt use. This will reduce the number of deployments for caseswhere the airbag provides little or no improvement in safety over theseatbelt. FIG. 15, for example, shows the placement of a resonator 602on the front surface of the seatbelt where it can be sensed by thetransducers 231 and 232. Such a system can also be used to positivelyidentify the presence of a rear facing child seat in the vehicle. Inthis case, a resonator 603 is placed on the forward most portion of thechild seat, or in some other convenient position, as shown in FIG. 1A.

Other uses for such resonators include placing them on doors and windowsin order to determine whether either is open or closed. In FIG. 16A, forexample, such a resonator 604 is placed on the top of the window and issensed by transducers 611 and 612. In this case, transducers 611 and 612also monitor the space between the edge of the window glass and the topof the window opening. Many vehicles now have systems which permit therapid opening of the window, called “express open”, by a momentary pushof a button. For example, when a vehicle approaches a tollbooth, thedriver needs only touch the window control button and the window opensrapidly. Some automobile manufacturers do not wish to use such systemsfor closing the window, called “express close”, because of the fear thatthe hand of the driver, or of a child leaning forward from the rearseat, or some other object, could get caught between the window andwindow frame. If the space between the edge of the window and the windowframe were monitored with an interior monitoring system, this problemcan be solved. Specifically, in one embodiment of the invention, theradar system emit radio waves into the passenger compartment and thewindow opening system 618 opens the window associated with the passengercompartment. The presence of the resonator or reflector 604 on the topof the window glass also gives a positive indication of where the topsurface is and reflections from below that point can be ignored.

Various design variations of the window monitoring system are possibleand the particular choice will depend on the requirements of the vehiclemanufacturer and the characteristics of the vehicle. Two systems will bebriefly described here.

In the first example shown in FIG. 16, a single transmitter/receiver(transducer) 613 is used in place of and located centrally midwaybetween the transducers 611 and 612 shown in FIG. 16A. A recording ofthe output of transducer 613 is made of the open window without anobject in the space between the window edge and the top of the windowframe. When in operation, the transducer 613 receives the return signalfrom the space it is monitoring and compares that signal with the storedsignal referenced above. This is done by processor 601. If thedifference between the test signal and the stored signal indicates thatthere is a reflecting object in the monitored space, the window isprevented from closing in the express close mode. If the window is partway up, a reflection will be received from the edge of the window glasswhich, in most cases, is easily identifiable from the reflection of ahand for example. A simple algorithm based on the intensity of thereflection in most cases is sufficient to determine that an objectrather than the window edge is in the monitored space. In other cases,the algorithm is used to identify the window edge and ignore thatreflection and all other reflections which are lower (i.e. later intime) than the window edge. In all cases, the system will default in notpermitting the express close if there is any doubt. The operator canstill close the window by holding the switch in the window closingposition and the window will then close slowly as it now does invehicles without the express close feature.

In the second system, two transducers 611 and 612 are used as shown inFIG. 16A and the processor 601 comprises a neural network. In thisexample the system is trained for all cases where the window is down andat intermediate locations. In operation, the transducers monitor thewindow space and feed the received signals to processor 601. As long asthe signals are similar to one of the signals for which the network wastrained, the express close system is enabled. As before, the default isto suppress the express close.

The use of a resonator, or reflector, to determine whether the vehicledoor is properly shut is illustrated in FIG. 17. In this case, theresonator 702 is placed in the B-pillar in such a manner that it isshielded by the door, or by a cover or other inhibiting mechanism (notshown) engaged by the door, and prevented from resonating when the dooris closed. Resonator 702 provides waves 704. If transducers such as 231and 232 in FIG. 3 are used in this system, the closed-door conditionwould be determined by the absence of a return signal from the B-pillar702 resonator. This system permits the substitution of an inexpensiveresonator for a more expensive and less reliable electrical switch.

The use of an acoustic resonator has been described above. For thosecases where an infrared laser system is used, an optical mirror wouldreplace the mechanical resonator used with the acoustic system. In theacoustic system, the resonator can be any of a variety of tunedresonating systems including an acoustic cavity or a vibratingmechanical element.

A neural network, or other pattern recognition system, can be trained torecognize certain people as permitted operators of a vehicle. In thiscase, if a non-recognized person attempts to operate the vehicle, thesystem can disable the vehicle and/or sound an alarm as illustrated inFIG. 18. In this figure the sensing transducers are shown as before as231A, 232A and 233A, the alarm system schematically as 708 and the alarmas 705. Since it is unlikely that an unauthorized operator will resemblethe authorized operator, the neural network system can be quite tolerantof differences in appearance of the operator. The system defaults towhere a key must be used in the case that the system doesn't recognizethe driver or the owner wishes to allow another person to operate thevehicle. The transducers 231A, 232A and 233A are sensitive to infraredradiation and the operator is irradiated with infrared waves fromtransducer 231A. This is necessary due to the small size of the featureswhich need to be recognized for high accuracy of recognition. Analternate system uses an infrared laser, which can be 231A in FIG. 18,to irradiate or illuminate the operator and a CCD or CMOS device, whichcan be represented as 232A in FIG. 18, to receive the reflected image.In this case, the recognition of the operator is accomplished using apattern recognition system such as described in Popesco, V. and Vincent,J. M. “Location of Facial Features Using a Boltzmann Machine toImplement Geometric Constraints”, Chapter 14 of Lisboa, P. J. G. andTaylor, M. J. Editors, Techniques and Applications of Neural Networks,Ellis Horwood Publishers, New York, 1993. In the present case a largerCCD element array containing 100,000 or more elements would in manycases be used instead of the 16 by 16 or 256 element CCD array used byPopesco and Vincent.

Once a vehicle interior monitoring system employing a sophisticatedpattern recognition system, such as a neural network or fuzzy logicsystem, is in place, it is possible to monitor the motions of the driverover time and determine if he is falling asleep or has otherwise becomeincapacitated. In such an event, the vehicle can be caused to respond ina number of different ways. One such system is illustrated in FIG. 19and consists of a monitoring system having transducers 231, 232 and 233plus microprocessor 101, such as shown in FIG. 7A, programmed to comparethe motions of the driver over time and trained to recognize changes inbehavior representative of becoming incapacitated. If the systemdetermines that there is a reasonable probability that the driver hasfallen asleep, for example, then it can turn on a warning light shownhere as 805 or send a warning sound. If the driver fails to respond tothe warning by pushing a button 806, for example, then the horn andlights can be operated in a manner to warn other vehicles and thevehicle brought to a stop. One novel approach, not shown, would be touse the horn as the button 806. For a momentary depression of the horn,for this case, the horn would not sound. Naturally other responses canalso be programmed.

An even more sophisticated system of monitoring the behavior of thedriver is to track his eye motions using such techniques as aredescribed in: Freidman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,052 “Eye TrackerCommunication System”; Heyner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,189 “EyePosition Sensor”; Hutchinson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,670 “Eye MovementDetector”; and Hutchinson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,069 “Eye MovementDetector With Improved Calibration and Speed”, all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety to the extent thedisclosure of these references is necessary. The detection of theimpaired driver in particular can be best determined by thesetechniques. Also, in a similar manner as described in these patents, themotion of the driver's eyes can be used to control various systems inthe vehicle permitting hands off control of the entertainment system,heating and air conditioning system or all of the other systemsdescribed above. Although some of these systems have been described inthe afore-mentioned patents, none have made use of neural networks forinterpreting the eye movements.

FIG. 20 shows an embodiment wherein the radar system disclosed above isarranged to direct radio waves into a trunk 622 of the vehicle and thereactive system is a trunk release 620 which causing opening of thetrunk 622.

FIG. 21A shows an air connection device 624 for providing or enablingair flow between the interior of the vehicle and the surroundingenvironment, if the presence of living beings is detected in a closedinterior space. The air connection device may be resident below the seat120 of the vehicle as shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 21B shows an alternative airconnection device.

In most of the applications described above, single frequency energy wasused to irradiate various occupying items of the passenger compartment.This was for illustrative purposes only and this invention is notlimited to single frequency irradiation. In many applications, it isuseful to use several discrete frequencies or a band of frequencies. Inthis manner, considerably greater information is received from thereflected irradiation permitting greater discrimination betweendifferent classes of objects. In general each object will have differentreflectivities and transmissivities at each frequency. Also, thedifferent resonators placed at different positions in the passengercompartment can now be tuned to different frequencies making it easierto isolate one resonator from another.

Among the inventions disclosed above is an arrangement for obtaining andconveying information about occupancy of a passenger compartment of avehicle comprises at least one wave-receiving sensor for receiving wavesfrom the passenger compartment, generating means coupled to thewave-receiving sensor(s) for generating information about the occupancyof the passenger compartment based on the waves received by thewave-receiving sensor(s) and communications means coupled to thegenerating means for transmitting the information about the occupancy ofthe passenger compartment. As such, response personnel can receive theinformation about the occupancy of the passenger compartment and respondappropriately, if necessary. There may be several wave-receiving sensorsand they may be, e.g., ultrasonic wave-receiving sensors,electromagnetic wave-receiving sensors, capacitance sensors, orcombinations thereof. The information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment can include the number of occupants in thepassenger compartment, as well as whether each occupant is movingnon-reflexively and breathing. A transmitter may be provided fortransmitting waves into the passenger compartment such that eachwave-receiving sensor receives waves transmitted from the transmitterand modified by passing into and at least partially through thepassenger compartment. One or more memory units may be coupled to thegenerating means for storing the information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment and to the communications means. Thecommunications means then can interrogate the memory unit(s) upon acrash of the vehicle to thereby obtain the information about theoccupancy of the passenger compartment. In one particularly usefulembodiment, means for determining the health state of at least oneoccupant are provided, e.g., a heartbeat sensor, a motion sensor such asa micropower impulse radar sensor for detecting motion of the at leastone occupant and motion sensor for determining whether the occupant(s)is/are breathing, and coupled to the communications means. Thecommunications means can interrogate the health state determining meansupon a crash of the vehicle to thereby obtain and transmit the healthstate of the occupant(s). The health state determining means can alsocomprise a chemical sensor for analyzing the amount of carbon dioxide inthe passenger compartment or around the at least one occupant or fordetecting the presence of blood in the passenger compartment. Movementof the occupant can be determined by monitoring the weight distributionof the occupant(s), or an analysis of waves from the space occupied bythe occupant(s). Each wave-receiving sensor generates a signalrepresentative of the waves received thereby and the generating meansmay comprise a processor for receiving and analyzing the signal from thewave-receiving sensor in order to generate the information about theoccupancy of the passenger compartment. The processor can comprisespattern recognition means for classifying an occupant of the seat sothat the information about the occupancy of the passenger compartmentincludes the classification of the occupant. The wave-receiving sensormay be a micropower impulse radar sensor adapted to detect motion of anoccupant whereby the motion of the occupant or absence of motion of theoccupant is indicative of whether the occupant is breathing. As such,the information about the occupancy of the passenger compartmentgenerated by the generating means is an indication of whether theoccupant is breathing. Also, the wave-receiving sensor may generate asignal representative of the waves received thereby and the generatingmeans receive this signal over time and determine whether any occupantsin the passenger compartment are moving. As such, the information aboutthe occupancy of the passenger compartment generated by the generatingmeans includes the number of moving and non-moving occupants in thepassenger compartment.

A related method for obtaining and conveying information about occupancyof a passenger compartment of a vehicle comprises the steps of receivingwaves from the passenger compartment, generating information about theoccupancy of the passenger compartment based on the received waves, andtransmitting the information about the occupancy of the passengercompartment whereby response personnel can receive the information aboutthe occupancy of the passenger compartment. Waves may be transmittedinto the passenger compartment whereby the transmitted waves aremodified by passing into and at least partially through the passengercompartment and then received. The information about the occupancy ofthe passenger compartment may be stored in at least one memory unitwhich is subsequently interrogated upon a crash of the vehicle tothereby obtain the information about the occupancy of the passengercompartment. A signal representative of the received waves can begenerated by sensors and analyzed in order to generate the informationabout the state of health of at least one occupant of the passengercompartment and/or to generate the information about the occupancy ofthe passenger compartment (i.e., determine non-reflexive movement and/orbreathing indicating life). Pattern recognition techniques, e.g., atrained neural network, can be applied to analyze the signal and therebyrecognize and identify any occupants of the passenger compartment. Inthis case, the identification of the occupants of the passengercompartment can be included into the information about the occupancy ofthe passenger compartment.

Other embodiments disclosed above are directed to methods andarrangements for controlling deployment of an airbag. One exemplifyingembodiment of an arrangement for controlling deployment of an airbagfrom an airbag module to protect an occupant in a seat of a vehicle in acrash comprises determining means for determining the position of theoccupant or a part thereof, and control means coupled to the determiningmeans for controlling deployment of the airbag based on the determinedposition of the occupant or part thereof. The determining means maycomprise receiver means, e.g., a wave-receiving transducer such as anelectromagnetic wave receiver (such as a CCD, CMOS, capacitor plate orantenna) or an ultrasonic transducer, for receiving waves from a spaceabove a seat portion of the seat and processor means coupled to thereceiver means for generating a signal representative of the position ofthe occupant or part thereof based on the waves received by the receivermeans. The determining means can include transmitter means fortransmitting waves into the space above the seat portion of the seatwhich are receivable by the receiver means. The receiver means may bemounted in various positions in the vehicle, including in a door of thevehicle, in which case, the distance between the occupant and the doorwould be determined, i.e., to determine whether the occupant is leaningagainst the door, and possibly adjacent the airbag module if it issituated in the door, or elsewhere in the vehicle. The control means aredesigned to suppress deployment of the airbag, control the time at whichdeployment of the airbag starts, control the rate of gas flow into theairbag, control the rate of gas flow out of the airbag and/or controlthe rate of deployment of the airbag.

Another arrangement for controlling deployment of an airbag comprisesdetermining means for determining whether an occupant is present in theseat, and control means coupled to the determining means for controllingdeployment of the airbag based on whether an occupant is present in theseat, e.g., to suppress deployment if the seat is unoccupied. Thedetermining means may comprise receiver means, e.g., a wave-receivingtransducer such as an ultrasonic transducer, CCD, CMOS, capacitor plate,capacitance sensor or antenna, for receiving waves from a space above aseat portion of the seat and processor means coupled to the receivermeans for generating a signal representative of the presence or absenceof an occupant in the seat based on the waves received by the receivermeans. The determining means may optionally include transmitter meansfor transmitting waves into the space above the seat portion of the seatwhich are receivable by the receiver means. Further, the determiningmeans may be designed to determine the position of the occupant or apart thereof when an occupant is in the seat in which case, the controlmeans are arranged to control deployment of side airbag based on thedetermined position of the occupant or part thereof.

One method for controlling deployment of an airbag from an airbag modulecomprising the steps of determining the position of the occupant or apart thereof, and controlling deployment of the airbag based on thedetermined position of the occupant or part thereof. The position of theoccupant or part thereof is determined as in the arrangement describedabove.

Another method for controlling deployment of an airbag comprises thesteps of determining whether an occupant is present in the seat, andcontrolling deployment of the airbag based on the presence or absence ofan occupant in the seat. The presence of the occupant, and optionallyposition of the occupant or a part thereof, are determined as in thearrangement described above.

Furthermore, disclosed above are methods for controlling a system in thevehicle based on an occupying item in which at least a portion of thepassenger compartment in which the occupying item is situated isirradiated, radiation from the occupying item are received, e.g., by aplurality of sensors or transducers each arranged at a discretelocation, the received radiation is processed by a processor in order tocreate one or more electronic signals characteristic of the occupyingitem based on the received radiation, each signal containing a patternrepresentative and/or characteristic of the occupying item and eachsignal is then categorized by utilizing pattern recognition techniquesfor recognizing and thus identifying the class of the occupying item. Inthe pattern recognition process, each signal is processed into acategorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns ofreceived radiation stored within the pattern recognition means andassociated with possible classes of occupying items of the vehicle. Oncethe signal(s) is/are categorized, the operation of the system in thevehicle may be affected based on the categorization of the signal(s),and thus based on the occupying item. If the system in the vehicle is avehicle communication system, then an output representative of thenumber of occupants in the vehicle may be produced based on thecategorization of the signal(s) and the vehicle communication systemthus controlled based on such output. Similarly, if the system in thevehicle is a vehicle entertainment system or heating and airconditioning system, then an output representative of specific seatoccupancy may be produced based on the categorization of the signal(s)and the vehicle entertainment system or heating and air conditioningsystem thus controlled based on such output. In one embodiment designedto ensure safe operation of the vehicle, the attentiveness of theoccupying item is determined from the signal(s) if the occupying item isan occupant, and in addition to affecting the system in the vehiclebased on the categorization of the signal, the system in the vehicle isaffected based on the determined attentiveness of the occupant.

One embodiment of the interior monitoring system in accordance with theinvention comprises means for irradiating at least a portion of thepassenger compartment in which an occupying item is situated, receivermeans for receiving radiation from the occupying item, e.g., a pluralityof receivers, each arranged at a discrete location, processor meanscoupled to the receivers for processing the received radiation from eachreceiver in order to create a respective electronic signalcharacteristic of the occupying item based on the received radiation,each signal containing a pattern representative of the occupying item,categorization means coupled to the processor means for categorizing thesignals, and output means coupled to the categorization means foraffecting another system within the vehicle based on the categorizationof the signals characteristic of the occupying item. The categorizationmeans may use a pattern recognition technique for recognizing and thusidentifying the class of the occupying item by processing the signalsinto a categorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns ofreceived radiation and associated with possible classes of occupyingitems of the vehicle. Each signal may comprise a plurality of data, allof which is compared to the data corresponding to patterns of receivedradiation and associated with possible classes of contents of thevehicle. In one specific embodiment, the system includes locationdetermining means coupled to the processor means for determining thelocation of the occupying item, e.g., based on the received radiationsuch that the output means which are coupled to the location determiningmeans, in addition to affecting the other system based on thecategorization of the signals characteristic of the occupying item,affect the system based on the determined location of the occupyingitem. In another embodiment to determine the presence or absence of anoccupant, the categorization means comprise pattern recognition meansfor recognizing the presence or absence of an occupying item in thepassenger compartment by processing each signal into a categorizationthereof signal based on data corresponding to patterns of receivedradiation and associated with possible occupying items of the vehicleand the absence of such occupying items.

Also disclosed above is an arrangement for controlling audio receptionby at least one occupant of a passenger compartment of the vehiclecomprises a monitoring system for determining the position of theoccupant(s) and sound generating means coupled to the monitoring systemfor generating specific sounds. The sound generating means areautomatically adjustable based on the determined position of theoccupant(s) such that the specific sounds are audible to theoccupant(s). The sound generating means may utilize hypersonic sound,e.g., comprise one or more pairs of ultrasonic frequency generators forgenerating ultrasonic waves whereby for each pair, the ultrasonicfrequency generators generate ultrasonic waves which mix to therebycreate new audio frequencies. Each pair of ultrasonic frequencygenerators is controlled independently of the others so that eachoccupant is able to have different new audio frequencies created. Fornoise cancellation purposes, the vehicle can include a system fordetecting the presence and direction of unwanted noise whereby the soundgenerating means are coupled to the unwanted noise presence anddetection system and direct sound to prevent reception of the unwantednoise by the occupant(s). If the sound generating means comprisespeakers, the speakers are controllable based on the determinedpositions of the occupants such that at least one speaker directs soundstoward each occupant. The monitoring system may be any type of systemwhich is capable of determining the location of the occupant, or morespecifically, the location of the head or ears of the occupants. Forexample, the monitoring system may comprise at least one wave-receivingsensor for receiving waves from the passenger compartment, and aprocessor coupled to the wave-receiving sensor(s) for determining theposition of the occupant(s) based on the waves received by thewave-receiving sensor(s). The monitoring system can also determine theposition of objects other than the occupants and control the soundgenerating means in consideration of the determined position of theobjects.

A related method for controlling audio reception by occupants in avehicle comprises the steps of determining the position of at least oneoccupant of the vehicle, providing a sound generator for generatingspecific sounds and automatically adjusting the sound generator based onthe determined position of the occupant(s) such that the specific soundsare audible to the occupant(s). The features of the arrangementdescribed above may be used in the method.

Another arrangement for controlling audio reception by occupants of apassenger compartment of the vehicle comprises a monitoring system fordetermining the presence of any occupants and sound generating meanscoupled to the monitoring system for generating specific sounds. Thesound generating means are automatically adjustable based on thedetermined presence of any occupants such that the specific sounds areaudible to any occupants present in the passenger compartment. Themonitoring system and sound generating means may be as in thearrangement described above. However, in this case, the sound generatingmeans are controlled based on the determined presence of the occupants.

Also disclosed above is a system for analyzing motion of occupants ofthe vehicle which comprises a wave-receiving system for receiving wavesfrom spaces above seats of the vehicle in which the occupants wouldnormally be situated and a processor coupled to the wave-receivingsystem for determining movement of any occupants based on the wavesreceived by the wave-receiving system. The wave-receiving system may bearranged on a rear view mirror of the vehicle, in a headliner, roof,ceiling or windshield header of the vehicle, in an A-Pillar or B-Pillarof the vehicle, above a top surface of an instrument panel of thevehicle, and in connection with a steering wheel of the vehicle or anairbag module of the vehicle. The wave-receiving system may comprise asingle axis antenna for receiving waves from spaces above a plurality ofthe seats in the vehicle or means for generating a scanning radar beam.The processor can be programmed to determine the location of at leastone of the head, chest and torso of any occupants. If it determines thelocation of the head of any occupants, it could monitor the position ofthe head of any occupants to determine whether the occupant is fallingasleep or becoming incapacitated. If it determines a position of anyoccupants at several time intervals, it could enable a determination ofmovement of any occupants to be obtained based on differences betweenthe position of any occupants over time.

Another system for operating the vehicle by a driver comprises awave-receiving system for receiving waves from a space above a seat inwhich the driver is situated, a processor coupled to the wave-receivingsystem for determining movement of the driver based on the wavesreceived by the wave-receiving system and ascertaining whether thedriver has become unable to operate the vehicle and a reactive systemcoupled to the processor for taking action to effect a change in theoperation of the vehicle upon a determination that the driver has becomeunable to operate the vehicle. The wave-receiving system may be arrangedon a rear view mirror of the vehicle, in a headliner, roof, ceiling orwindshield header of the vehicle, in an A-Pillar or B-Pillar of thevehicle, above a top surface of an instrument panel of the vehicle, andin connection with a steering wheel of the vehicle or an airbag moduleof the vehicle.

A similar method for regulating operation of the vehicle by a drivercomprises the steps of receiving waves from a space above a seat inwhich the driver is situated, determining movement of the driver basedon the received waves, ascertaining whether the driver has become unableto operate the vehicle based on any movement of the driver or a part ofthe driver, and taking action to effect a change in the operation of thevehicle upon a determination that the driver has become unable tooperate the vehicle. Such action can be the activation of an alarm, awarning device, a steering wheel correction device and/or a steeringwheel friction increasing device which would make it harder to turn thesteering wheel.

All of the above-described methods and apparatus may be used inconjunction with one another and in combination with the methods andapparatus for optimizing the driving conditions for the occupants of thevehicle described herein.

Although several preferred embodiments are illustrated and describedabove, there are possible combinations using other geometries, sensors,materials and different dimensions for the components that perform thesame functions. This invention is not limited to the above embodimentsand should be determined by the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A vehicle including a system for determining occupancy ofthe vehicle, comprising: a radar system for emitting radio waves into aninterior of the vehicle in which objects would likely be situated andreceiving radio waves; and a processor coupled to said radar system andstructured and arranged to determine the presence of a plurality ofsubstantially the same motion which only in combination is indicative ofa living occupant in the vehicle based on the radio waves received bysaid radar system such that the presence of living occupants in thevehicle is ascertainable upon the determination of the presence of theplurality of substantially the same motion indicative of a livingoccupant.
 2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein said processor isstructured and arranged to analyze the frequency of the motion based onthe radio waves received by said radar system whereby a frequency in apredetermined range is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 3. Thevehicle of claim 1, wherein said processor is structured and arranged toanalyze motion only at particular locations in the vehicle in which achest of any occupants would be located whereby motion at the particularlocations is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 4. The vehicle ofclaim 1, further comprising an occupant position and location sensorsystem for determining locations of the chest of any occupants, saidradar system being coupled to said occupant position and location sensorsystem and being adjusted based on the determined location of the chestof any occupants.
 5. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein said radar systemis a micropower impulse radar system which monitors motion at a setdistance from said radar system.
 6. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein saidradar system is arranged to emit radio waves into a passengercompartment of the vehicle.
 7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein saidradar system is arranged to emit radio waves toward a seat of thevehicle such that said processor determines whether the seats areoccupied by living beings.
 8. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprisinga reactive system coupled to said processor for reacting to thedetermination by said processor of the presence of the plurality ofsubstantially the same motion.
 9. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein saidreactive system is an air connection device for providing or enablingair flow between the interior of the vehicle and the surroundingenvironment.
 10. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein said reactive system isan alarm system for providing a warning.
 11. The vehicle of claim 8,wherein said radar system is arranged to emit radio waves into a trunkof the vehicle and said reactive system is a trunk release for openingthe trunk.
 12. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein said reactive system isan airbag system, said airbag system being controlled based on thedetermined presence of the plurality of substantially the same motion inthe vehicle.
 13. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein said radar system isarranged to emit radio waves into a passenger compartment of the vehicleand said reactive system is a window opening system for opening a windowassociated with the passenger compartment.
 14. A method for determiningoccupancy of the vehicle, comprising the steps of: emitting radio wavesinto an interior of the vehicle in which objects would likely besituated; receiving radio waves after interaction with any objects; anddetermining the presence of a plurality of substantially the same motionwhich only in combination is indicative of a living occupant in thevehicle based on the received radio waves such that the presence ofliving occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determinationof the presence of the plurality of substantially the same motionindicative of a living occupant.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein thestep of determining the presence of the plurality of substantially thesame motion comprises the step of analyzing the frequency of the motionbased on the received radio waves whereby a frequency in a predeterminedrange is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 16. The method of claim14, wherein the step of determining the presence of the plurality ofsubstantially the same motion comprises the step of analyzing motiononly at particular locations in the vehicle in which a chest of anyoccupants would be located whereby motion at the particular locations isindicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 17. The method of claim 14,further comprising the steps of: determining locations of the chest ofany occupants; and adjusting the emission of radio waves based on thedetermined location of the chest of any occupants.
 18. The method ofclaim 14, further comprising the step of arranging a radio wave emitterand receiver to emit radio waves into a passenger compartment of thevehicle.
 19. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step ofproviding or enabling air flow between the interior of the vehicle andthe surrounding environment upon a determination of the presence of anyoccupants in the vehicle.
 20. The method of claim 14, further comprisingthe step of providing a warning upon a determination of the presence ofany occupants in the vehicle.
 21. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising the steps of: arranging a radio wave emitter and receiver toemit radio waves into a trunk of the vehicle; and opening the trunk upona determination of the presence of any occupants in the trunk.
 22. Themethod of claim 14, further comprising the steps of: arranging a radiowave emitter and receiver to emit radio waves into a passengercompartment of the vehicle; and opening a window associated with thepassenger compartment upon a determination of the presence of anyoccupants in the passenger compartment.
 23. A vehicle including a systemfor determining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising: a radar system foremitting radio waves into an interior of the vehicle in which objectswould likely be situated and receiving radio waves; and a processorcoupled to said radar system for determining the presence of anyrepetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehicle basedon the radio waves received by said radar system such that the presenceof living occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon thedetermination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant, said processor being structured and arranged to analyzethe frequency of the repetitive motions based on the radio wavesreceived by said radar system whereby a frequency in a predeterminedrange is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 24. A vehicle includinga system for determining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising: a radarsystem for emitting radio waves into an interior of the vehicle in whichobjects would likely be situated and receiving radio waves; and aprocessor coupled to said radar system for determining the presence ofany repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehiclebased on the radio waves received by said radar system such that thepresence of living occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon thedetermination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant, said processor being structured and arranged to analyzemotion only at particular locations in the vehicle in which a chest ofany occupants would be located whereby motion at the particularlocations is indicative of a heartbeat or breathing.
 25. A vehicleincluding a system for determining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising:a radar system for emitting radio waves into an interior of the vehiclein which objects would likely be situated and receiving radio waves; aprocessor coupled to said radar system for determining the presence ofany repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehiclebased on the radio waves received by said radar system such that thepresence of living occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon thedetermination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant; and a reactive system coupled to said processor forreacting to the determination by said processor of the presence of anyrepetitive motions, said reactive system being an air connection devicefor providing or enabling air flow between the interior of the vehicleand the surrounding environment.
 26. A vehicle including a system fordetermining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising: a radar system foremitting radio waves into an interior of the vehicle in which objectswould likely be situated and receiving radio waves; a processor coupledto said radar system for determining the presence of any repetitivemotions indicative of a living occupant in the vehicle based on theradio waves received by said radar system such that the presence ofliving occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determinationof the presence of repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant;and a reactive system coupled to said processor for reacting to thedetermination by said processor of the presence of any repetitivemotions, said radar system being arranged to emit radio waves into atrunk of the vehicle and said reactive system being a trunk release foropening the trunk.
 27. A vehicle including a system for determiningoccupancy of the vehicle, comprising: a radar system for emitting radiowaves into an interior of the vehicle in which objects would likely besituated and receiving radio waves; a processor coupled to said radarsystem for determining the presence of any repetitive motions indicativeof a living occupant in the vehicle based on the radio waves received bysaid radar system such that the presence of living occupants in thevehicle is ascertainable upon the determination of the presence ofrepetitive motions indicative of a living occupant; and a reactivesystem coupled to said processor for reacting to the determination bysaid processor of the presence of any repetitive motions, said radarsystem being arranged to emit radio waves into a passenger compartmentof the vehicle and said reactive system being a system for causing achange in the temperature in the passenger compartment.
 28. The vehicleof claim 27, wherein said system for causing a change in the temperaturein the passenger compartment is a window opening system for opening awindow associated with the passenger compartment.
 29. A method fordetermining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising the steps of: emittingradio waves into an interior of the vehicle in which objects wouldlikely be situated; receiving radio waves after interaction with anyobjects; and determining the presence of any repetitive motionsindicative of a living occupant in the vehicle based on the receivedradio waves such that the presence of living occupants in the vehicle isascertainable upon the determination of the presence of repetitivemotions indicative of a living occupant, the step of determining thepresence of any repetitive motions comprising the step of analyzing thefrequency of the repetitive motions based on the received radio waveswhereby a frequency in a predetermined range is indicative of aheartbeat or breathing.
 30. A method for determining occupancy of thevehicle, comprising the steps of: emitting radio waves into an interiorof the vehicle in which objects would likely be situated; receivingradio waves after interaction with any objects; and determining thepresence of any repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant inthe vehicle based on the received radio waves such that the presence ofliving occupants in the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determinationof the presence of repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant,the step of determining the presence of any repetitive motionscomprising the step of analyzing motion only at particular locations inthe vehicle in which a chest of any occupants would be located wherebymotion at the particular locations is indicative of a heartbeat orbreathing.
 31. A method for determining occupancy of the vehicle,comprising the steps of: emitting radio waves into an interior of thevehicle in which objects would likely be situated; receiving radio wavesafter interaction with any objects; determining the presence of anyrepetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the vehicle basedon the received radio waves such that the presence of living occupantsin the vehicle is ascertainable upon the determination of the presenceof repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant; and providing orenabling air flow between the interior of the vehicle and a surroundingenvironment having a different temperature upon a determination of thepresence of any occupants in the vehicle to thereby cause a change inthe temperature of the interior of the vehicle.
 32. A method fordetermining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising the steps of: emittingradio waves from a radio wave emitter and receiver into a closeablecompartment in or attached to the vehicle in which objects would likelybe situated; receiving radio waves after interaction with any objects;determining the presence of any repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant in the compartment based on the received radio wavessuch that the presence of living occupants in the compartment isascertainable upon the determination of the presence of repetitivemotions indicative of a living occupant; and opening the compartmentupon a determination of the presence of any occupants in the compartmentor providing a warning to a driver of the driver about the presence ofany occupants in the compartment.
 33. A method for determining occupancyof the vehicle, comprising the steps of: emitting radio waves from aradio wave emitter and receiver into a passenger compartment of thevehicle in which objects would likely be situated; receiving radio wavesafter interaction with any objects; determining the presence of anyrepetitive motions indicative of a living occupant in the passengercompartment based on the received radio waves such that the presence ofliving occupants in the passenger compartment is ascertainable upon thedetermination of the presence of repetitive motions indicative of aliving occupant; and providing or enabling air flow between the interiorof the vehicle and a surrounding environment having a differenttemperature upon a determination of the presence of any occupants in thepassenger compartment to thereby cause a change in the temperature ofthe passenger compartment.
 34. A vehicle including a system fordetermining occupancy of the vehicle, comprising: a radar system foremitting radio waves into a closeable compartment in or attached to thevehicle in which objects would likely be situated and receiving radiowaves; a processor coupled to said radar system for determining thepresence of any repetitive motions indicative of a living occupant inthe compartment based on the radio waves received by said radar systemsuch that the presence of living occupants in the compartment isascertainable upon the determination of the presence of repetitivemotions indicative of a living occupant; and a reactive system coupledto said processor for reacting to the determination by said processor ofthe presence of any repetitive motions, said reactive system being arelease for opening the compartment or a system for providing a warningto a driver of the vehicle of the presence of any repetitive motions inthe compartment.